Any serious Christian who has thoroughly read their Bible will easily tell you that the Prosperity Gospel is complete heresy- I agree. I have grown up myself often laughing at some of the stuff Joel Osteen and others alike preach, justifying their lavish lifestyles and preaching to thousands that if they believe in God they will be rich and healthy. They tell people to speak things into existence and believe wholeheartedly that anything that is even a slight hardship could never be God's will for their life. We often make jokes and poke fun at the Prosperity Gospel and thats its completely the opposite of what the Bible actually says and what all of the apostles and martyrs went through. But recently I started to notice in my own thinking that even though I fully agree that the Prosperity Gospel is heresy, I still pursue it in my daily life. My basic definition of the Prosperity Gospel is "putting your hope in anything earthly that God didn't promise." I have been noticing a lot of anxiety in my life lately over my career and living situation and always wanting more and dwelling on how what I have is not enough. How is that any different than the message of the Prosperity Gospel? Sometimes I even think that if I do more holy things, more ministry or do more nice things for the people around me, God will be obligated to reward me with a higher salary, or more lavish home. I put my hope into earthly pursuits and subconsciously thinking that trials or hardships can't possibly be part of God's plan for my life. Just today I was driving home from work and listening to the radio when one of my favorite songs came on and I was singing the following lyrics "take it all, take it all away, magnify no other name" only as soon as I sang that in my mind I said "but please God don't actually take it all away" haha. I know that God takes care of even the sparrow and will always take care of me but I see so much of the heresy of the Prosperity Gospel seeping into my life. It really does affect so much of my spiritual walk with God- it makes me unable to fully trust God's plan for my life, makes me expect things from God He doesn't owe me or ever promised, makes me put my hope in finding joy in earthly success and makes me an ineffective Christian if I am using all of my resources for myself instead of the advance of His Kingdom. Don't get me wrong, I think Christians should plan their lives to have maximum financial security and enjoy the gifts God gives us, but don't be fooled into thinking that Christians don't fall into the lie that their success isn't worldly and their pursuits are for God's Kingdom. The one thing that God does promise us when He saves us is that He will never forsake us, He gives us a new heart and the Holy Spirit that lives inside us, He provides us with everything that is necessary to live a godly life- there aren't any promises about anything material, so why do we live like there are?
Last Sunday's youth sermon was truly convicting. And not just a "yeah, that was important" type of convicting, but really a "wow, I need to change my whole perspective and really hit the root issue here, truly repent and ask God to change my heart in this regard" type of convicting. The whole time I felt as though the sermon had been specially crafted for me- to really get me to analyze my own heart and realize how little I love the people that are truly my brothers and sisters. By nature I love to critique everything- I always thought it would be awesome to have a career where I get to criticize companies or stores and tell them what they are doing wrong. Unfortunately my sinful nature brings this into the way I deal with people. As I was listening to the sermon I realized that judging people was just my default setting. In my own head, to myself, I always concealed this as honest assessment or analyzing- instead of downright, sinful judging. When I would be c