It’s pretty simple. If you are prospering, God is on your side, If you give God a percentage of your gains, God will increase your wealth multiple times, proving, once again, that God is on your side. God wants you to do well, whether you (as Fr. Pat Dolan would say) are doing good, or not. Even if you are cruel, small-minded, insufferable, God can’t help but make sure you are saturated with riches. It’s divinely guaranteed!
So, the opposite must also be true. If you’re poor, suffering, struggling, sick…, God has turned away from you. Even if you are doing good in the world, if you are just getting by, God has no time for you (or for any such losers!). God’s favor (or lack thereof) is clearly shown in each person’s life. A version of this distorted image of God has been with us for millennia. This self-serving theory keeps coming back with new energy in every age, it seems.
The wisdom from various spiritual traditions is: It’s not what you have, or how much you have, that matters, as much as what you do with what you have. Having too much can be spiritually perilous, as can having too little. Either extreme can turn our hearts away from God and in on ourselves. We can become possessed by what we have, and by what we do not have. God becomes a second thought, or ceases to have any place in our lives.
How radically refreshing is the approach of Jesus! God loves you. If your circumstances are difficult and your resources are few, God does not turn away from you. If your circumstances are easy and your resources are copious, God does not put you ahead of others. God-loves-you! Keep God number one, That’s the most important thing. Trust God. Share what you have been given with those in need. Prosperity can be a blessing, or it can be a curse. God knows.
Jana Buckley says:
Thank you for addressing this long standing viewpoint of how our earthly wealth is perceived as our connection to God’s good graces. It is definitely something that we need to routinely put into perspective in our minds as our surroundings continually evolve.