Whereas there are voices that are calling this crisis the death knell of the prosperity Gospel, the contrarian in me sees things slightly differently. If the church ever needed to embrace a prosperity message, NOW IS THE TIME! I can't possibly be stupid enough to believe that, can I? Definitely stupid enough, but more importantly, BIBLICAL enough. Let me explain.
Biblical prosperity does not hinge upon our storehouse (stocks, bonds, lands, homes, and cash), but God's. We may have nothing in ours, his is infinitely abundant, not effected at all by upheavals like we're experiencing now. We don't have to have millions in our hand to be in the hand of him who has millions upon millions in his. He knows what we need and can timely dispatch it. That is a prosperity message custom ordered to the day, and one we need to put faith in, if we're to navigate these turbulent seas unsunk by the weight of worry.
Biblical prosperity cannot be measured by worldly standards. God gives according to his standard, not ours. We think we need a bigger barn and the ability to have peace by sight, God knows we need to follow Christ and live by faith. Desiring God to bless us by worldly standards instead of his is flirting with disaster spiritually. Do we not trust God's judgment, his grace, his character? If we do, we can relax, and get on with what God wants us to get on with. Just exactly how big is our God, anyhow?
In the midst of this storm, we must ask ourselves what kind of people we are: those that are frantic, wasting ourselves desperately rowing against the wind, or those that are at rest in Christ. Jesus did what he did in lowly fashion, and without the American dream; can we not do even greater works, even if it seems we have no more means? If ever there was a time we needed to understand and embrace true, biblical prosperity, I think, now is that time.
