GOD IS NOT OBLIGATED TO ME

Have you ever been to a “Prosperity Crusade?”  Several years ago, Steve and I were invited to hear a speaker.  Unaware that he was a “Prosperity Pusher,” we accepted the invitation.  The speaker began his inspirational presentation, which swiftly progressed to a “seed sowing sermon,” complete with testimonies of a ten-fold, hundred-fold and even a thousand-fold return on the sowing of a tiny seed. 

Soon there were congregants actually dancing down the aisle, seed in hand, eager to sow and reap the harvest.  It was a very “seductive” presentation and I found myself wanting to reach for my checkbook and sow my own seed.  Fortunately, the Godly man beside me, leaned over and said, “Let’s get out of here.”

Prosperity preaching has not lost its appeal; its appeal to our flesh; its appeal to our desires; its appeal to our lust for power and its appeals to our fears…fear of need, fear of want and fear of not “keeping up” with  our neighbor. 

Prosperity preaching offers the hearer SELF-SUFFICIENCY rather than GOD-SUFFICIENCY over every situation.  It puts the hearer in a position of power rather than dependence on God’s provision.  It promises the gift of manipulation by just “sowing a seed.”

I have even heard preachers and prosperity advocates declare that “When we bless others, God is OBLIGATED then to bless us!”  Is that not the HEIGHT OF ARROGANCE???  The idea, that I can do anything to OBLIGATE GOD.  Next we will be told that we can actually EARN SALVATION by being good enough, doing enough, shunning enough or following enough rules.  WAIT…that teaching has already been tried and believe it or not, has gained quite a following.

GOD IS NEVER OBLIGATED TO US…

When you believe that EVERYTHING you have is a blessing from God and all that you have belongs to Him, how could you think God is ever OBLIGATED to do anything for us? 

Let’s think about this whole thing logically…EVERYTHING I possess is from God; NOTHING I possess actually belongs to me; I BLESS SOMEONE ELSE with something that doesn’t actually belong to me and that makes the OWNER OF EVERYTHING OBLIGATED to give me more stuff.  STOP!!!!  MY HEAD IS EXPLODING…. Yours should be too. 

GOD IS NOT OBLIGATED TO US!!!

Luke 12:32 “Do not fear little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

We give because we love God and His love shines through us; NOT to get God to bless us or earn anything.  He blesses His children because He is our Father and it is His good pleasure, NOT HIS OBLIGATION.