Source: www.mightofapen./2012/11/18/financial-prosperity-a-curse-or-a-blessing/

Needless to say, one thing is for sure
and that’s the fact that God wants us to
prosper (Deuteronomy 8:18, Jeremiah
29:11, Genesis 15:1). He makes us
know that his thought for us is that of
good and not for evil. God wants us to be comfortable on earth. He does not
want us to lack and he wants us to
have everything. “If you then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more will
your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask
Him!” (Mathew 7:11) In the bible, we are told of many
people God blessed. We have
Abraham. He had so much that even
nations envied him. David was no
different. Lot had so much and even
after the troubles in his life, he had far more than he had in the beginning.
From all perspectives, this people were
wealthy even beyond words could
imagine. Again, Jesus says that: Again I tell you,
it is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of
God.” (Mathew 19:24). We are told of
Solomon who had so much, and after a time, he slowly began to shift away
from God. He tasted all that life could
offer and at the end of his life, he
concluded that all was vanity. Again, we have the story of Lazarus
and the Rich man. The Rich man had it
all. Lazarus was a mere bagger at his
gate and after their deaths, Lazarus
made heaven while the once wealthy
man begged to get a drop of water on his quenching tongue (Luke 16:19). The foolish rich man again, was a man
who exalted himself, even above God
and took solace in his material
possessions. He never acknowledged
God and at the end, it became the
death of him (Luke 12:16-21). Now away from our bible. We have
Christians who are exceeding
prosperous in all their earthly ventures
and we have Christians who can
barely make it through three square
meals a day. Today, we have preachers who are
criticized for being wealthy. Their
lifestyle is a spectacle for the media.
Their complain: Why would preachers
live in affluence while their members
squander in penury? Does a labourer not deserve his
wages? Even one in the household of
God. Again, we are made known about the
lives of the early apostles of Christ.
They were noted for many things.
They separated themselves from the
ways of this world. They were citizens
of a different nation, though they dwelled among men. They didn’t seek
after material gains, but instead they
sought for a greater gain. “Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust destroy,
and where thieves break in and steal.20But store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where moth and
rust do not destroy, and where thieves
do not break in and steal.21For where
your treasure is, there your heart will
be also.22″The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your
whole body will be full of light.23But if
your eyes are bad, your whole body
will be full of darkness. If then the light
within you is darkness, how great is
that darkness!24″No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve both God and
Money.” (Mathew 6:19-24). There was a time when a man came to
Jesus seeking eternal life. He boasted
of how he obeyed all the laws and
how he lived the right life. Jesus gave
him one final test: “Sell all you have
and follow me”. Seeing that he had so much, he could not part away from his
might possession and so he left Jesus
disappointed. (Mathew 10:21). Can you part with all you have to
follow Jesus? In this case of this man,
he had so much and yet was afraid to
lose what he had. But, he was not the
first Jesus had called. Before him were
the twelve. They answered his calls with hesitation. Even Matthew the tax
collector (Back then, tax collectors
were seen as evil and corrupt people
who oppressed the poor to get high
gains.). The case is different from the
twelve for they did not have much to call their own in contrast to this
wealthy man. Didn’t you observe how easy is was for them to discard all they had a follow Jesus, unlike the wealthy man? Another scenario was a wealthy
centurion, Cornelius the Centurion
who Jesus sent Peter to meet (Acts
10) . The centurion obeyed God and
prayed much to him and he was a God
fearing man, but he didn’t know Jesus. (I am the way the truth and the light,
no one comes to the father except by
me. John 14:16). So he needed to get
saved by knowing and admitting
Jesus as the Lord and Saviour
(Romans 10:9). Although he was rich and he also obeyed God, there was
one thing peculiar about him: “Your
prayer and your alms have come as a memorial before God.” (Acts 10:14.).
He gave. Was it just about giving? Surely if it
was, then all wealthy men would have
been saved. Look at the scenario
between a rich man and a poor
widow. The rich man flaunted his
offering and gave much because he was rich. The disciples (Being MEN)
saw that this rich man gave more than
any other person, but Jesus opposed
saying that the poor widow gave
more. Why? Because she gave from
her heart not just because she wanted the praise of man or because she had
so much that she needed to give some
away. Back to the very beginning of this
post. Is it God’s will for us to be
wealthy and prosper how is it his will
that he have little or nothing. It is quite
apparent that he wants the best for us. If it quite apparent that God wants us
to prosper, but there is a problem: The misuse of wealth or prosperity by man. There is a story of a man when he was poor, could sweep the entire
church and would never miss a church
service. He prayed to be rich and after
God finally answered his prayers, he
swayed away from God. He missed
service and he definitely saw himself too big to lay hands on a broom on
even arrange the chairs in church.
Unknown to him, wealth had become
a curse rather than a blessing. James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may
consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye
not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 16 But now ye
rejoice in your boastings: all such
rejoicing is evil. I have just open question: You want to
be rich, but have you examined
yourself and know why you really
want so much money? The bible tells
us that contentment with God is great
gain. Or is it that God knows that like that man, you’ll turn away from him
once he grants you your heart desire? It’s quite unfortunate and very true
that many preachers have abused the
seat of leadership of the church as an
avenue to make money. Many
preachers are seen in flamboyant cars
and in large entourage. Building mansions all over the place. But I have
just one question: If one egg is bad,
does that make all the eggs bad?
Remember that counterfeits can all
exists because there are originals. If
there were no originals, then the word ‘counterfeit’ would not come into play. In my opening sentences, we saw
people who were rich and stayed
faithful to God and we saw others who
were rich and never stayed faithful to
God, or like Solomon were attracted by
the things of this world.

I quite agree with most of d things u said but am confused bout smtn why are the prophets in the bible not rich men like pastors of nowadays. Both in d old and new testament. Abraham, david, solomon etc were not prophets they were just good men who believed in God. Elijah, elisha, john the baptist, paul, peter and d rest were Prophets, preacher of the word and there was no record of any of dem having numerous sheep, cattles or camels even Jesus christ was not a rich man. Why didn't they amass wealth unlike pastors of now dat cruise about in private jets. Jesus christ preached smewhere and fed 6000 men with bread n fish, hw many pastors have single handedly provide for the less priviledge in their church they rather preach dat u sow b4 u can reap. I believe this is not right smetn is wrong somewhere.