Greg Laurie Harvest Daily Devotional

Act now to share the love of Christ in the Middle East
<< Greg Laurie Daily Devotions

God’s Definition of Prosperity - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion - May 24, 2016

God’s Definition of Prosperity

So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News. - (Romans 1:15)

Prosperity is a very popular word today. Some preachers talk a lot about prosperity, and sometimes we refer to this as the prosperity gospel. This is basically the idea that God wants everyone to be in perfect health all the time, that sickness is always outside the will of God, and if you are sick, then you should just claim health, and you will be better. It is also the idea that God wants you to be very wealthy. But this is not what the Bible teaches.

Now, the Bible isn’t saying that we should all live in abject poverty and have nothing. But the Bible is saying that God’s definition of prosperity may be different than our definition of it. Prosperity doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is going easy and well. Prosperity means that you are in the will of God.

About five years before he made his journey to Rome, the apostle Paul wrote to the believers there and said, “One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. For I long to visit you . . .” (Romans 1:10–11). The King James Version puts it this way: “Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you . . .” (emphasis added).

Here is what Paul was saying to the believers in Rome: “I want to come and see you, and I’m praying for a prosperous journey.”

Paul prayed for a prosperous journey to visit the believers in Rome, and he got just that. Some may say, “How so? There was a shipwreck and a storm.”

Exactly. But he was in the will of God.

Copyright © 2016 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
Listen to Greg Laurie's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com.

Watch Greg Laurie's weekly television broadcast on LightSource.com.

SPECIAL OFFER

A Call Back to Faith

Watching a loved one stray from God is one of the hardest things for Christians to cope with. What are we to do? What can we do? Do we have a part to play in restoring a person who has fallen away? Yes we do. 

Come Home by James MacDonald talks about practical things you can do (or avoid doing) to call your prodigal back to faith. Receive a copy when you give a gift of support to Harvest Ministries this month.

 



More Greg Laurie Daily Devotions Articles