My haphazard reflection about the prosperity preachers.

My haphazard reflection about the prosperity preachers.

Can anyone explain to me the prosperity gospel? Is it more about the prosperity or the gospel? Is it about the gospel of Success or about the success of the Gospel? Is it all that simple? Really, just have faith, and all's well and ends well? 

How sincere is the preacher when he preaches to thousands about God's plans for prosperity for all? I know this is written in the scripture but is it applicable to all and sundry? Is it a one-size-fits-all for a one-fit-that-sizes-up-all? Is the preacher missing out something here? Is he deliberately avoiding what's lurking behind door number 3? 

Can he look into the face of the dying and promise him that healing is coming? In fact, nothing has ever stopped the prosperity preacher from telling everyone regardless that their healing has already arrived. It is the same here with their prosperity, their material possessions, and their blessings from the heavenly storehouses. They are all stocked up and ready to go - so they exclaimed. Just believe and you shall receive! This is the hundredfold faith of the prosperity preacher. 

Yet, the reality of things seems too slow to catch up with the oral proclamations of the confident preacher. Somehow, the delay can be unnerving for a lot of believers. Has the message of prosperity got lost in translation? Has the preacher skipped the fine red print of the gospel for the big-print promises of health and wealth? Have we traded in substance for form?

Maybe it is about timing? Maybe it is about waiting upon the Lord? Maybe it is about keeping watch and pray? Is this "maybe" then the so-called faith that the prosperity preacher is hollering about every Sunday? If so, where is his trademark confidence when he preaches on Sabbath with beaming authority, and for the rest of the week, he juggles restlessly with probability? Where then is that Jericho shout of assurance when he stands behind the pulpit all decked up with flowing scriptural promises that fire up the imagination of the congregation and whet their appetite for more earthly gains? 

Alas, if the world of the prosperity gospel is like a giant adoption center, am I the only orphan left in the compound whom everyone has walked by? And if the world of the prosperity gospel is like the lottery jackpot where everyone is holding the winning ticket, am I then the only one holding the losing numbers? Am I too dumb or too thick in the head to fully appropriate the prosperity blessings? Am I standing in my own way? 

Sometimes I wonder, why is it taking the prosperity gospel world so long (and counting) for all her believers to name and claim their prosperity when it is as simple as naming and claiming them? Is it a case of only-when-stock-lasts and the blessings are delivered in batches on a first-come-first-serve basis? 

For this reasons, are those who come later destined to wait indefinitely to receive their blessings? And strangely, the only thing guaranteed in this glittering world is that the ones who are served first are often the prosperity preachers themselves? Mm...did those who are still mired in anything but prosperity draw the short end of the stick? 

So, after all said, can anyone explain the prosperity gospel to me? Can the believers explain to me how it all works? Because the last time I checked, the one who hung on the Cross clearly promised us that as He has overcome, we will overcome too. 

However, I don't think He talked about prosperity the way the zealous prosperity preacher had preached about it. He definitely did not guarantee unbridled prosperity as we walk by faith in His Spirit and in Truth. 

Anyhow, here's a thought from a thick skull as I end. Maybe to be truly rich in God is not about how much I possess. But it is about how much I am changed by His love and sacrifice. And that has always been my Savior's currency that surpasses all the prosperity promises those wealthy preachers are touting about. Cheerz.