“Your year of supernatural increase”, “Your year of
increasing favour”, “Your year of impact” are but few of the ever-increasing
catch-phrase themes that accompany and advertise various church projects,
programmes and festivals. If you have
taken some time to peruse Christian posters of late, you would undoubtedly not
miss these mouth-watering, eye-pleasing and ear-tickling themes.
For many Christians who believe that prosperity is a must
for all Christians, they see nearly no problems with the sudden and dramatic
u-turn some pastors of today have unexpectedly but prophetically made from the
pure message of salvation to the ear-tickling proclamations and declarations of
prosperity messages.
The prosperity message has gained much currency and flies so
much because of the critical, hard and perilous times we live in and the
shackles of poverty that has deprived many of life’s comforts and even
necessities.
Honestly however, it
would be wrong for pastors to lean on their own wisdom and philosophy to tickle the ears of
people with unscriptural and baseless “motivational sermons”.
The timeless answer is to point people to the blissful purpose of God for those who love him and have faith in him through Jesus and to direct their attention to the unseen glories to be revealed in his kingdom for “just as it is written: ‘eye has not seen and ear has not heard, neither have there been conceived in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him’ “.
Is it wrong for Christians to be prosperous? Not at all. For
in fact the Bible is emphatic that it is the blessing of the LORD that makes
one rich and he adds no sorrow with it. (Proverbs 10:22). Also it adds, “ And
God will indeed put you at the head and not at the tail; and you must come to
be only on top, and you will not come to be on the bottom, because you keep obeying
the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am commanding you today to
observe and to do ”.
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