Poverty Which Can Issue From Prosperity

“The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this, and could not contradict him, but they sneered at him. Let us consider this as their sin, and the fruit of their covetousness, which was their primary sin. Many who make a great profession of religion and abound in the exercise of devotion, are yet ruined by the love of the world. These covetous Pharisees could not bear to have that touched, which was their Delilah, their darling lust; for this they derided him, they turned up their noses at him, or blew their noses on him. It is an expression of the utmost scorn and disdain imaginable. They laughed at him for going so contrary to the opinion and way of the world. It is common for those to make a joke of the word of God who are resolved that they will not be ruled by it.” Matthew Henry

“The Christian way is different: harder and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you... No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down...Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. I will give you Myself: My own will shall become yours.’” C.S. Lewis

“Being generous with your money is a personal quality of someone that the grace of God has gripped. Why? Because the essence of the Gospel of grace is generosity. Jesus Christ gave up the Greatest Treasure in the world. He gave away his treasure when he left the most affluent gated community in the universe, heaven and all its glory, became poor, so that we might become rich. He gave up Ultimate wealth—Himself, for you. ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’, he said and lived. He also said you cannot serve God and money, it’s impossible. You have to choose. Only by the power of the Gospel of grace can you begin to be generous”. Tom Wood

“‘There is no fear in love’, writes the apostle John, ‘but perfect love drives out fear...’ He goes on to point to the source of that perfect love: ‘We love because He first loved us”. In other words, the cure to fear is not a change in circumstances, rather a deep grounding in the love of God. I ask God to reveal His love to me directly, or through my relationships with those who also know Him—a prayer I think God takes great delight in answering. When I get depressed about my present failures, I ask God to remind me of my true identity: one who will be made perfect and has already been forgiven. ‘You’ve got to go deeper’, said the nun to my burned-out pastor. ‘Sink the well into a water table that never runs dry’...Thomas Merton conceded that everything in modern city life conspires against such surrender. We worry (fear) about money, about what we need to have and to know, about whom to compete with and what is slipping out of our control...(he) found the secret to true freedom: If we live to please God alone (the One who loves us), we set ourselves free from the cares and worries that press in on us.” Phillip Yancey

“The entertaining of any worldly lust, and indulgence of any known willful sin, is an accursed thing, by which we are deprived of the power of God, and cannot stand before our enemies. Behold, therefore the severity of God, and be more earnest. Make all haste to flee from the lust of the world, especially from the lust of the eye, which is the love of money. Examine thyself closely in other things, and whatever sinful lust harbors in thy breast, be faithful to put it off, and flee from it, else you must not wonder at your being so weak in spirit. He that does not resist the sinful motions of his heart, will very easily give a loose to his hands and tongue; but he that immediately subdues the inward corruptions, will certainly be preserved from their breaking out in any sinful actions. O Lord, deliver me from all accursed things, and keep my heart always under thy closest inspection and discipline. Amen.” K. H. Von Bogatzky

“What is the basis of our security? When we start thinking about that question, we may give many answers: success, money, friends, property, popularity, family, connections, insurance, and so on. We may not always think that any of these forms the basis of our security, but our actions or feelings may tell us otherwise. When we start losing our money, our friends, or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our sense of security is rooted in these things. A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love. We probably will never be completely free from our attachment to the temporal world, but if we want to live in that world in a truly free way, we'd better not belong to it. ‘You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’ (Luke 16:13).” Henri Nouwen

“I’ll never forget being prayed for by Ray, a friend whose world is one filled with material poverty, homelessness, setbacks and empty hands. Ray prayed strong and spontaneous – that I, the pastor of the big church from Nashville, Tennessee who writes books and has a blog and lives in a comfy house and has never been concerned about missing a meal and has always been able to pay his bills – would know the security of the Father’s care, the smile of the Father’s love, the freedom of the Father’s grace, the intimacy of the Father’s arms, the friendship of the Father’s family, and the abundance of the Father’s provision. Ray prayed as a man who, possessing close to nothing, possessed all things. He prayed as a man with empty hands but a full heart. He prayed as a man with abundant gratitude, as if he had a secret treasure stored up in a world that I had only heard and talked about, but perhaps had not yet seen. In that moment, I began to wonder which of us was really living large and which was living in scarcity. I began to wonder which of us was running with two legs and which of us was running with one. I began to wonder which of us was carrying the aces and which of us was carrying an empty hand. As Luther aptly said, ‘We are all beggars, this is true.’” Scott Sauls