Does God Want You To Be Rich?
The Bible leaves no question about it. God’s people are supposed to be rich. Not just rich in spirit; not just rich with righteousness, love, joy, peace, patience and the fellowship of God, but also with money and assets. Not rich only in relationships and spiritual rewards, but God’s people are to be rich – financially wealthy and prosperous in every way possible with plenty of money.
Scripture after scripture confirms it:
- “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:22)
- “Riches and honour are with the wisdom of God; yea durable riches and righteousness.” (Proverbs 8:18)
- “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighted greatly in his commandments. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth forever.” (Psalm 112:1,3)
- “For we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich yet for our sake He became poor, that we through His property might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)
- “But money answers everything.” Ecc. 10:19b (solves all problems)
“Rich” or “Riches” is in the bible 186 times. “Money” is in the bible 114 times.
So why does He want us rich?
What is the purpose of money? “To build the Kingdom of God.” (Deut. 8:18) “To fulfill the great commission of making disciples of all men.” (Matt. 28:19) What does money have to do with that? The gospel is free, it just takes money to preach it…
How many more bibles could you send into the mission field if you had more money? How many more missionaries could you finance? How much more money could you give to the food bank, the church, the poor, the International Justice League. Get the point?
What is the first sentence of the first chapter of Rick Warrens’ book, The Purpose Driven Life?, “It is not about you.”
Getting more money is not about you…
Jesus spoke more about money and/or stewardship than any other subject. Do you think we should pay attention to that?