Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel

• So sometime in December I think, I got into a semi-accident, where we had to pay for someone to get four new tires
• Driving on I20, a huge piece of scrap metal got air after someone ran directly over it and ran into my front bumper...  scratching it all up (blessed it did not get enough air to go through the windshield!)
• A deer ran INTO my car on the way to a friend's house... messing up the alignment on my car and scratching it

Because of the cost of the deer damage, I had to file a claim on my insurance. We have just had to spend a lot of money lately on accidents lately. After each one of the accidents, I was literally so mad. I was mad at God for allowing it to happen, because I know he is in control. I thought God must not love me. I thought, in fact, he must hate me because of the these things that kept happening (so dramatic, I know).

Have you ever gotten an email that says something to the effect of "pray this prayer and God will bless you with something amazing in your life"? I don't like those emails... the mentality is the "health, wealth, and prosperity gospel". It says, basically, that if you do _________(pray, go to church, etc.), God will give you ________ (a new car, new house, good health, job). When in reality, the reason we obey God and spend time with him in prayer, worshipping him at church, and learning more about who he is reading our Bible is because we love God... not because we are trying to win blessings. We see the incredible love God has shown us through sending his son Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins and respond in love and obedience. It's not about us, it's about Jesus. Jesus says that if we love him, we will obey him...

"If you love me, keep my commands." - Jesus, John 14:15


I always thought I never believed the "health, wealth, and prosperity gospel", until God convicted me that I tend to believe just that. By my questioning of God's love for me everytime a trial popped up in my life, it showed my heart was equating God's love with lack of suffering. When in reality, God says in the Bible that we will have trials and will have to suffer...

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."   James 1:2-4

But our suffering will give us character and will be used to sanctify us... making us look more like Jesus. Jesus is really the only blessing we need, and if we know him as our Savior then we can rejoice always.

Unexpected friends

I was running around the track at the RAC (GA Southern's fitness facility), and this new friend was in the middle of the trail waiting on me at the end of my 3rd mile... I relocated him back by the lake where he belongs, and we hung out there for a little while. Maybe I'll run into him again soon!