You Say You Are Blessed, But Are You Really?
Do you even know what it is to be blessed or why you are blessed?
This is the start of a study on Being Blessed and Prosperous: Not What You Think
Yesterday, someone on Facebook shared a Huffington Post article that was actually quite eye-opening about what we are really saying when we say "I'm blessed". (Link to the article at the bottom of this post)
Here's my response:
I very much agree with the guy. I'm totally disturbed by even the most (seemingly) benign teaching on double blessings, prosperity and overflowing outpourings on my seed.
In fact, I heard a sermon a week-ago Sunday talking about how God is a giving God. As I was listening to it I became more convinced that if we want to be like Him, then we are to give because it is His nature to give. But we are to give not expecting anything in return.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to fit in our like-for-like, gotta-give-it-to-get-it, God is a fat Buddha just waiting for us to rub his belly and chant our demands, or worse that he's a God-shaped (or cross-shaped) piggy bank, where we drop in our tidbits and expect a double, triple and even hundred-fold return.
Since God is a giving God, He does bless us. But the prosperity gospel turns Him into one that can be manipulated by our actions. It no longer becomes a matter of Him giving to bless us or because giving is His nature, but of Him dutifully rewarding us because He should be grateful that we have paid Him.
It becomes a works-dependent blessing where we are rewarded for our giving, and if we are not getting the financial blessings that we think we should get, then we must be doing it wrong: not giving enough, or have some terrible sin in our life which God is punishing us for (because obviously the Blood of Jesus is not enough!).
I'm going to be doing a study on what the Bible actually says about things like prosperity, prospering, wealth and being blessed. I've already started the research, and it's actually quite eye-opening, and may be surprising for you as well.
Huffington Post Article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-dannemiller/christians-should-stop-saying_b_4868963.html
Sermon "He Gave" http://gatewaypeople.com/sermons/198371
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| Sadly, this is what many consider to be blessings |
This is the start of a study on Being Blessed and Prosperous: Not What You Think
Yesterday, someone on Facebook shared a Huffington Post article that was actually quite eye-opening about what we are really saying when we say "I'm blessed". (Link to the article at the bottom of this post)
Here's my response:
I very much agree with the guy. I'm totally disturbed by even the most (seemingly) benign teaching on double blessings, prosperity and overflowing outpourings on my seed.
In fact, I heard a sermon a week-ago Sunday talking about how God is a giving God. As I was listening to it I became more convinced that if we want to be like Him, then we are to give because it is His nature to give. But we are to give not expecting anything in return.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to fit in our like-for-like, gotta-give-it-to-get-it, God is a fat Buddha just waiting for us to rub his belly and chant our demands, or worse that he's a God-shaped (or cross-shaped) piggy bank, where we drop in our tidbits and expect a double, triple and even hundred-fold return.
Since God is a giving God, He does bless us. But the prosperity gospel turns Him into one that can be manipulated by our actions. It no longer becomes a matter of Him giving to bless us or because giving is His nature, but of Him dutifully rewarding us because He should be grateful that we have paid Him.
It becomes a works-dependent blessing where we are rewarded for our giving, and if we are not getting the financial blessings that we think we should get, then we must be doing it wrong: not giving enough, or have some terrible sin in our life which God is punishing us for (because obviously the Blood of Jesus is not enough!).
I'm going to be doing a study on what the Bible actually says about things like prosperity, prospering, wealth and being blessed. I've already started the research, and it's actually quite eye-opening, and may be surprising for you as well.
Huffington Post Article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-dannemiller/christians-should-stop-saying_b_4868963.html
Sermon "He Gave" http://gatewaypeople.com/sermons/198371
