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September 2007, Page 1.
Index of articles:
by subject,
by date.
In this issue:
(September 2007)
Prosperity,
Question,
Venite,
Harmony?
Remember in your prosperity
When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to give you - a land with large flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant - then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12.)
Deuteronomy chapter 6 is the part which starts with “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one,” and goes on to loving God with all our hearts and souls and strength. That’s hard enough. The chapter says there are five marks of this love: telling your children, decorating your houses, remembering in prosperity, keeping his commands, and adhering to a creed. And I’ve always thought this one - remembering God in our prosperity - is the hardest.
Because - we have never been so rich. Our standard of living goes up year by year, healthcare gets better, we have more shops, eat better food, wear nicer clothes, and have more TV channels ... and yet we only worry more. Its as if more possessions tie us more firmly to the earth, and having more means we trust God less.
Why? I suppose it’s obvious. If we have very little, we are forced to pray and depend on God. It isn’t very nice, being vulnerable, but it does force us to admit our dependency. But if we have a lot, we naturally look to what we have to see us through, and so we aren’t forced to pray or rely on God to the same extent. Logically speaking, increasing prosperity is bound to result in people thinking they can get by without God.
OK, what’s the remedy?
There are two parts to our cure. First we need an inward change: we need to realize that we still need God. Money can’t buy our health (it can buy healthcare but it can’t heal us). Money can’t buy peace (it can pay for police but it can’t make people behave). Money can’t buy talent (it can pay for teachers but it can’t make us learn). We need to come back to God and invite him to take up residence in our hearts again.
Second, we need an outward change. In order to wean ourselves off trusting money, we need to start giving money away. We need to see that the money we have was give to us to use in making the world a better place, and we need to start using it like that. We need to start giving money to God and to causes which will do God’s work in our world.
John Hartley