YOU CAN BE RICH AND YET BE MISERABLE (PART 1)
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" - Mark 8:36 (KJV)
It is God's will for His children to prosper and be in good health, even as their souls prosper (3 Jn 2). To me, that settles the question as to whether God is pleased to have His children prosper. God had and still has sons and daughters that were/are truly prosperous.
When we talk about prosperity, indeed true prosperity, we should understand that it's not only God that is the Source of blessings. Of course, there are other sources of blessing. Have you forgotten how the devil told Jesus to bow down to worship him, so he would deliver to Him the "kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them" ? (Matthew 4:8) But God told Abraham,
"That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, " (Genesis 22:17). If God were the only Source of blessing, the Bible wouldn't tell us that "The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." - Prov 10:22. Did you hear that? It says, "The blessing of the Lord"! This implies that there are blessings that are not of the Lord.
The book of Jeremiah throws further light on this.
"As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool" - Jeremiah 17:11 (KJV)
When you function in God's blessing, you are assured of it in its fullness, without regrets attendant to it. You may not understand what I'm talking about until you consider other translations of Jeremiah 17:11. For instance, the International Children Bible says: "Sometimes a bird will hatch an egg that it did not lay. That bird is like the man who gets rich by cheating. When that man’s life is half finished, he will lose his riches. At the end of his life, it will be clear he was a fool."
Indeed, I have witnessed so many people who got rich by cheating, short cuts, etc; and who before long, in the middle of their years in life, lost those riches and became dejected and forsaken in life. In all of those cases, their experiences were traumatic, pitiable and deplorable, to say the least. Most of them died miserable deaths. They lived with the excruciating resurging thoughts of how well it was with them in the past, compared to their current state of degradation.
There's something about wealth gotten - "not by right"(KJV), "by cheating" (ICB), "dishonestly" (GW), "by unjust means" (NLT, AMPC), "corruptly" (CEB), "by doing sinful things" (NIrV), etc; it never lasts and it's full of troubles in the end. THIS IS A SPIRITUAL LAW THAT CANNOT BE BROKEN. Don't just try it! If you are there already, repent forthwith and make amends with the Lord and He will have mercy on you.
Proverbs 13:11 echoes it further:
"Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase."
Two kinds of wealth are mentioned here. (1) Wealth gotten by vanity and (2) Wealth gathered by labor. As regards the former, the wealth shall diminish and to the latter, the wealth shall increase. Let's not forget that God rewards us according to our deeds.
"And also, my Lord, you have a faithful love. You pay back to everybody what they should get for the things that they have done." - Psalms 62:12, EASY.
So therefore, the one that by choice has decided to enrich himself by unjust means, without the fear of the Lord should expect to be rewarded with destruction, coupled with sorrow. On the other hand, the one that decides to have recourse to God in seeking wealth shall be rewarded by God with the fullness of His blessing, without sorrow or regret.
"Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded " - Proverbs 13:13 (KJV)
Actually, the choice is yours! You need not fall into satan's trap that will make you a fool in the end. In all of these, I haven't mentioned yet that eternal damnation awaits the one that has gotten rich through unjust means. But the good thing is that the one who in this matter is already sold out to satan, can repent and ask the Lord for mercy and restoration. If He had mercy on Zacchaeus (Lk 19:8-10), He is sure to do the same to you!
PRAYER:
Lord, You already have blessed me and made me a blessing. I reject every form of blessing from satan and his agents. From today, I commit to wait upon You to bless me as You have promised to do, in Jesus name.