God does not want His people to be materialistic. Materialism is the worship of things. People are always going to find something to worship because man has been created to worship. Notice that people will always find something to give their lives to, something to be obsessed with. We need to be obsessed with God and nothing else. But did you know that God still wants you to be prosperous?
Prosperity is goodness from God that has a powerful affect and influence on our spirit, soul and body, enabling us to abound in every way. It seems that many have confused prosperity with materialism. Because materialism is very common it is often mistaken to be prosperity. But you can be very materialistic and also be oppressed in your soul. That’s why you hear of people who have everything, in regards to material things and money, still found in despair, lacking peace in their hearts.
mountainsProsperity is an abundance of life in God that overflows into every aspect of our lives. No one, in their right mind, wants to be impoverished. That is why everyone is doing all they can to get a better quality life. Poverty is the absolute degrading of human life. God has only good plans for His people. One of these good plans is to prosper us. When you study the words of Jesus you see that He said, Woe to you who are rich for you have had your comfort. (Luke 6:24) Then turn around a minute later saying, Give and it shall be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38). Then He would say, Lend to others (Luke 6:35). Do you realize that to give and lend requires some measure of prosperity? The borrower is the servant to the lender. God has called us to be the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath (Deut. 28:13). So why did Jesus say woe to you who are rich? It was because they spent it on themselves. They had their comfort thinking of no one else.
Jesus said we cannot serve both God and mammon. The Greek definition of mammon is money personified. In other words, it is when people make money for a god to be worshiped. The love of money is the root of all evil. It is idolatry. Idolatry can be the worship of anything other than God. Wherever people put their heart is what they worship. That’s why Jesus said that where our treasure is, that is where our heart will be as well (Matt. 6:26). What do we treasure is the question.
You can have two people with 1 million dollars and they both have different motives and ideas of what they will do with it. One may use it for themselves, while another will use it for the Kingdom of God. It is all about the heart motive. Whether it is 1 dollar, 100 dollars, 1000 dollars, 100,000 dollars or 1 million it is all about the stewardship and heart motives. Be delivered from a materialistic mindset and allow God to prosper your life for a purpose so you can be a channel of His blessings to others.