The good news of the gospel is not that you get things but that you get God.
Key Points:
- The “prosperity gospel” teaches that if you are faithful to God, he will bless you with health, wealth, and happiness here on earth.
- Not only is it untrue that faithful people always get good things, it is often the case in prosperity gospel churches that these treasures are held up just as high as God himself.
- From a biblical perspective, it is simply false that God will bless us with good things all the time if we give a lot of money to the ministry, show up at church a lot, and “claim” God’s promises through our faith.
- The good news of the gospel is not that you get things, but that you get God and God is enough. Sometimes God wants us to suffer so that we will become more and more the people he is creating us to be, not because we lack faith.
Quote This:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 …Or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Talk About It
- What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- Have you ever heard of the prosperity gospel? What are your thoughts on it?
- What is the danger to believing that God’s blessings to us are based on our quality of faith?
- Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. What is the danger in believing that we suffer only because of our lack of faith?
- Why is it important to remember that the real treasure of the Christian life is Jesus himself?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
