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Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Does serving God guarantee prosperity? Not so much.

Habakkuk 3 17-18 plus modern application

Does serving God guarantee prosperity? Habakkuk didn't think so.

There are other Biblical cases that show that there us no guarantee that things will go "our way."

See Job, who lost all that he had, including his children. True, he got replacements for all of these, including the children, but he wasn't prosperous for a period in his life, and, by God's own testimony, Job was following God at the time. Other passages include Christ's warnings about earthly treasure, His own poverty, Paul's recitation of adversities in his life, and the amazing record of the anonymous heroes of faith who suffered for the sake of God's Kingdom.

Matthew 6:19 “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 20  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 21  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Jesus speaking.)

Matthew 8:9 A scribe came, and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Mark 10:24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into God’s Kingdom! 25  It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.”

2 Corinthians 11:23b I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. 24 Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. 26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; 27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

Hebrews 11:35b Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. 39 These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn’t receive the promise, 40 God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

All quotations are from the World English Bible, public domain. Thanks for reading.

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