Today’s Readings: Psalm 8, 38, 68, 98, 128 Proverbs 8 Excerpts from Francis Fenelon.
Getting up this morning was not hard, Bailey walks in to our room at 5:45 am crying, saying, “I threw up.” She was so good, made it to the trashcan for half of it, the other half mostly on the rug and none on her bed. I am amazed at how amazing she is, I cleaned it all up and didn’t think about it twice. Somehow my love for her keeps me from thinking about the sickness and grossness of vomit as other things that normally would make me gross out. I am not a perfect father but think about our heavenly Father, He is perfect and His love has no end . . . He cleans our grossest sins and holds us at the same time.
But a huge question I have had is this, “Is it God’s will for Christians to prosper? In all areas including finances?” Plus “Is there a relationships between blessing of our homes and blessings on our community?” Read Psalm 128 below
1 Blessed are all who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways.
2 You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your sons will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4 Thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
5 May the LORD bless you from Zion
all the days of your life;
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
6 and may you live to see your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel.
The obvious answer by this written song is a big “Yes”. . . “but”. There is always a big “but” it seems. The person that “fears” and “walks” with the Lord will receive blessing. Both “fear” and “walk” are common words throughout Scripture to refer to “reverence” and “live with”. Proverbs 8:13 describes “fear of the Lord” this way, “to hate evil”. There is a clear relationship in that the blessing of a home blesses a community.
Lets look at Proverbs 8 for Solomon’s comments on “prosperity”. This is the personification of “wisdom”:
With me are riches and honor,
enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than fine gold;
what I yield surpasses choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,
21 bestowing wealth on those who love me
and making their treasuries full.
Wealth and prosperity are themes of many televangelists and preachers, it’s a common theme in many churches too. Many reject this and in order to balance the scale, they preach a doctrine of suffering, endurance and trials. So much teaching is reactionary . . . whether it’s the sacraments, the charasmatic gifts or money. Out of fear of one extreme we go to the other. I believe the Bible speaks of both and neither extreme is completely correct. On the one hand, physical prosperity is a real topic in Scripture, we can’t just spiritualize those passages. It is clear that God does bless his followers with material blessings. It is clear that from both explicit verses to examples of saints that were blessed. On the other hand it’s not a rule of life. God chooses to bless some with material possessions and other with spiritual ones. We can’t manipulate God or use him to gain possessions. Sometimes God chooses to allow us to go through great pain, suffering and poverty. “Be rich in spirit” is a
theme of the New Testament. Jesus and others in the Bible were poor and though they were faithful, did not experience great wealth, success or health. It seems like our faithfulness can bring those things but does not guarantee them. Does God want you to win the lottery? Probably not. Does He want you to be rich? Materially? Maybe but rich in life, spirituality, humility? YES!God is Good but not because of the great parking lot space you found at Wal-Mart. I find it “silly” to hear people calling God good because of conveniences like this. God is good even if you get cancer or HIV. God is good even if you lose everything. God’s goodness does not depend on your material blessing or curses. Otherwise an African mother who has HIV, husband died, is in extreme poverty and whose child is dying of starvation could not say God is good. I’m not saying that we are not blessed by the conveniences but I am saying that Christians need to be careful to call God good regardless of the circumstances. He is just good, merciful and just.
“Don’t seek that which rust and moth can destroy”. We are told to seek wisdom, justice and love. . . material riches may follow or they might not. Spiritual riches will follow you all the way home! Lord, help me be satisfied with all the spiritual and material blessings knowing that today could be my last day. You are good!
Francois Fenelon (1651-1715) was a member of the court of Louis XIV. He was banned by the pope for “loving God too much and man too little”.
Excerpts from “Christian Perfection”
The “true children of God” sacrifice themselves, they suffer but they want to suffer and they prefer the suffering to every false joy. What God asks us is a will which is no longer divided between him and any creature” . . .Blessed are they who throw themselves with bowed head and closed eyes in to the “Father of mercies” and the God of all consolation. . . . the more one loves God, the more one is content. What folly to fear to be too entirely God’s. . . that is fear to be happy, fear to have too much courage in the crosses. . . so let us scorn earthly things to be wholly God’s. Our whole life was only given us to advance us by great strides toward our heavenly country. There is only one way to love God: to take not a single step without him, and to follow which a brave heart wherever he leads.” I like Francois passion for God and his amazing commitment to walk with him. In real life, we probably wouldn’t be close buddies though. I find that to enjoy God without impact the world is a problem that plagues our churches. We need to move from devotion to mission and obedience. I do like what Fenelon says in light of 1 Peter 4:1-6, “You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do” . . .living in sin. I pray Lord that you help me see this world and its pleasures in a dimmer light today, may I be led to a simple, sacrificing and content life. May you help me focus my energies not on acquisition of stuff and earthly security but on you. May this economic downturn wake your church up and move us all to a refined biblical view of riches, wealth and our future. Thank you God for being good!
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