Friends, I’m just going to be real with you. There are few things I’ve experienced in churches that bother me as much as the prosperity gospel.

For those of you who’ve never heard of the prosperity gospel, it’s a belief among some Christians that true blessings from God come in the form of monetary wealth and physical well-being. This brand of theology teaches that God blesses those who love Him with money and health. Along with this logic comes the idea that giving money to the church is a great way to increase your wealth.

I remember my first experience with the prosperity gospel. I was in Guatemala and one Sunday our group visited the biggest church I’ve ever been in. My Spanish was fairly good at that time, and I was translating for one of my classmates beside me. But I found myself wondering if I was translating all wrong, because the things I was hearing didn’t make any sense.

Things like, if you have a lot of money, you’re doing it right. God is blessing you. And if you don’t have a lot of money, you’re doing something wrong. God isn’t blessing you. Something in your life has to change so God can bless you with His riches.

Things like, if God is with you, He will bless everything you touch. Everything you come in contact with can and will be yours. If you’re a good Christian, God will bless you with all the wealth and things you could ever need.

I thought I had to be translating wrong. This couldn’t be the message the pastor was actually teaching this church filled with people both rich and poor.

I mean, Jesus was the one who said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied” (Luke 6:20). And he was the one who said, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry” (Luke 6:24).

Jesus was the one who overturned the value system of his time. He preached against the idea that the wealthy enjoyed God’s blessings more than the poor, because the poor can still be spiritually wealthy, and the rich can be spiritually starved.

At the end of the sermon, the pastor invited everyone to give their offering to God so they could, in turn, be blessed. I watched as literally thousands of people walked up to the stage and laid money right at the pastor’s feet. It was one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen.

After we left the church, we all looked at our professor and asked if he was really preaching what we thought he was. The answer was yes.

The message of the prosperity gospel is appealing to both the rich and the poor. For the rich, it condones an excessive lifestyle and self-satisfaction. For the poor, it offers hope of a wealthy future… if they would just be a better Christian.

The problem is, that message is flawed.

You see, when God talks about His blessings in our lives, He’s not talking about money and fancy cars and extravagant houses.

If God’s blessings were defined by money, I don’t think Jesus would’ve told the rich young man to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor to find his treasure in heaven (Matthew 19:21). I don’t think he would’ve discouraged his followers from storing up treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19). After all, if money shows God’s blessing, we should store up as much of it as possible, right?

Being blessed isn’t about what’s in your wallet or your bank account. If it was, what does that say about the 80% of humanity that lives on less than $10 a day? I know a lot of sweet people who love Jesus but don’t have a lot of money. Does that mean God doesn’t care about them like He cares about the millionaires?

Besides, Jesus didn’t tell his disciples that if they followed him, they’d live healthy, wealthy lives. Actually, he said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

So I think blessings look a lot less like money and a lot more like God’s presence in our lives, even when the world does give us trouble. They look like God’s words to Israel in Isaiah 43:1-2: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

Blessings look like grace. They look like the Creator of the world sending His son down into this broken world, to become flesh and make his dwelling among us. They look like Jesus taking our sins and our brokenness and dying on the cross so that we can live.

They look like peace, and love, and hope, and joy. They look like all the things that truly matter in life—not the things that are temporary and are passing away.

Blessings can look like lots of different things. God can bless us with relationships, and healing, and opportunities, and, yes, success. But God can also bless us with little. He can bless us with hard times that draw us closer to Him. He can bless us with challenges that make us stronger. He can bless us with things that don’t fit a cookie-cutter definition of “blessings.”

But good grief, please don’t believe that money is synonymous with God’s blessings.

Real blessings are so much better.

By the way, friend, never forget… you are onederfully created.

Love,
Becca