Wow! Thank you, LA.

I guess we parents would like our children to have health, friendships, stimulation in school and work, interesting work, and not to worry about money. So part of me assumes that God would want the same for his children. What do you think?

John Wesley in a famous 1789 sermon said, “Wherever true Christianity spreads, it must cause diligence and frugality, which, in the natural course of things, must beget riches! ”
Do you agree?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/june12/1.36.html

Seriously, I’ve been fascinated for years by the question of whether when the very poor, in Africa or Asia, let’s say, come to Christ, their material circumstances change. I feel surely–through prayer, which opens you up to divine wisdom, through increased discipline, through abandoning habits of despair like drinking, through increased hope?

I was invited to meet the CEO of Tearfund earlier this year (with a handful of other bloggers) and he seemed to be saying he saw the same thing. The most powerful change conversion to Christianity brings to the African poor, he said, was increased hope.

I believe that God equips the called, not calls the equipped, so, yes, I believe that new talents are rising in us all the time depending on what we’re called to be in His Kingdom. I once had someone give us that “What Are Your Spiritual Gifts” inventory to identify what we’re called to do in this one committee. Someone started the discussion about equipping the called and we ended up putting the inventory down without completing it. God will give us our Minas sometimes whether we want them or not.

I think there is a prosperity of spirit that comes with obeying God, but that prosperity of wordly things is oftentimes confused as coming as a “reward” for good behavior and right thinking. For people who cannot change their circumstance or accident of birth, this equating of prosperity with Godliness is demeaning and disenfranchising. I feel we need to guard against being that rich man praying in the temple “thank God I’m not like *that* dude!”.

Nowhere in the Gospels are there stories of poor people becoming rich for believing in God. We have nothing in the stories that even hint that Jesus’ words changed anyone’s wordly circumstance. The poor remained poor, the rich became poor by giving ALL that they had away and Jesus even out and out said that wordly possessions and success would be a hindrance to passing into His Kingdom. He specifically called on us to give up all our wordly success to follow him. I think Jesus would find prosperity theology to be antithetical to almost every story He has told us.

I wonder if God gives us new gifts throughout our lives, just as we give our children new gifts. I would not have realistically believed I had a gift for business–and yet, when we needed the money, and I turned my hand to it, it turned out that I did.

Funny, I haven’t actually heard prosperity preachers that much. A very sensible preacher in our Williamsburg church once quoted Joshua that if your obey God you will be prosperous and successful in everything you do. I asked him if I had understood him rightly, and he said I had.

And I must admit that someone who is disciplined, honest, hardworking, peaceful, prayerful and calm would have a stronger likelihood of success–and prosperity. Surely?

I wonder if poverty thinking, scarcity, zero-sum thinking is more obnoxious to God than prosperity theology? Because it’s further from his nature?

Gratitude and trust. What wonderful minas to invest! Yeah, I guess we all live with degrees of hope deferred this side of eternity. I have a massive hope, which I’ve had for 3 decades, which has been largely deferred–and like you, have to learn to be grateful and rejoice in the degree to which it has been very partially accomplished

It is unfortunate that some preachers use this story to reinforce The Prosperity Gospel where our monetary wealth is directly proportional to our spiritual health. Your take on this is more holistic and accurate than the “be good and God will give you money” kind of interpretation.