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| background of photo courtesy of pixabay.com |
But the truth is I do not long for those days in the least. To be perfectly frank, I was never satiated, not by any of it. I always came away empty, and hungry, and starved. The worldly prosperity I was taught God should give me made me malnourished and sick, and took me farther and farther from the Lord. In fact, it was taking me straight to hell. By God’s conviction and grace alone, I came to see that I was under false – and ultimately deadly – teaching of God’s Word. I wasn’t being taught God’s Truth. I was being taught Satan’s lies. And, sad to say, I loved just about every minute of it. But thanks be to God, who has since given me an insatiable hunger for Him and for His pure Word, the Bible, I said goodbye to worldly prosperity. And I said hello to a prosperity I never in a million years could have imagined possible.
The prosperity of living my life for the Lord, of living the abundant life of being loved by Him and loving Him back, the rich life of enjoying His spiritual blessings, the privileged life of learning to humble myself and exalt my God, the lavish life of seeking His face instead of seeking the world, the altogether satisfying and fulfilling life of loving Him more than anything or anyone in this world, the upscale life of setting my affection on things above (Col. 3:2) instead of making my goal the things and people of this world.
Only now in retrospect, now that I feed daily on His Word, only now through my relationship with God through faith in Christ who died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins, do I see with utter clarity that I was living under false teaching. More accurately, I was dying under false teaching.
For Jesus Christ did not die on the cross so I could be rich in money and successful in the world’s eyes and have all my personal dreams come true. He died so I could take up my own little cross, deny my own agenda and wishes and wants, and follow Him in a lifestyle of love and service to the Lord with a yearning and passion and commitment to tell the world about Him as I minister His love to a world in need.
Today, I am alive. Today I live. Today I thrive. Today I prosper. Not in the riches of this world. I prosper in Christ the Lord.
Goodbye worldly prosperity. Hello prosperity in Christ.
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph_1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph_1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph_2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph_3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Eph_3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
1Ti_6:17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
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