When a man comes to Christ and starts to obey Him, it’s not long before he knuckles down to productive and fruitful labour. His cocaine bills also go down. Such a person is no longer sinning his money away and so begins to live within his means.
As a result, he is also likely to become more prosperous, which is a blessing – but a blessing that comes with the risk of forgetting why he prospered.
You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance. (Psalm 65:11)
This kind of turn-around in a man’s life can be considered a fruit of sanctification. His new prosperity is truly God’s blessing, but like all blessings, this prosperity always brings with it a certain kind of temptation.
Cotton Mather once commented that “The faithfulness of the people begat prosperity, but then the daughter ate the mother.”
Put another way, whenever Jeshurun waxes fat, he kicks.
But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked… becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation (Deuteronomy 32:15)
The results of forgetting where your blessings come from, like the word-picture above, are never pretty.
One of our central temptations, according to scripture, is to forget the God who gave the goods and develop an undue fondness for the goods (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
The biblical remedy always goes to the heart of the matter, which, not surprisingly, is the heart. For example, Paul tells Timothy how we should instruct those who are rich in this present world.
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
The first thought here is that we ought not to be haughty or proud of our wealth. Don’t boast or brag about it. That’s ugly. Don’t imagine yourself more spiritual, closer to God or more worthy either. That is also ugly.
Secondly, we are told not to set our hopes on riches, which are as unstable as a house made of Visa cards. That is to say, pretty unstable. Who wants to worship a god subject to interest rates?
The third thought here is to acknowledge that God gives to us so that we might enjoy His gifts. The writer of Ecclesiastes notes that this can only happen by the grace of God.
As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:19)
The flip side of this is that we are to give from that the same sense of enjoyment and gratitude.
A man plagued with guilt will give only enough to bring down the level of guilt. But a man giving from gratitude tends to give for the increase of joy. Both his own joy and the joy of others (Acts 20:35)
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