Lent: Prosperity Gospel

Last night I read an amazing article by Kate Bowler about the Prosperity Gospel.  Not only was it informative and moving, but it was so deeply convicting.  Bowler, having just been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, describes the bitter taste of the Prosperity Gospel in light of this most recent tragedy.  Her cancer diagnosis derails not only her life, but also the lives of her husband and young toddler. 

With a profound clarity that we receive most often in pain, she notes,

"The prosperity gospel has taken a religion based on the contemplation of a dying man and stripped it of its call to surrender all. Perhaps worse, it has replaced Christian faith with the most painful forms of certainty. The movement has perfected a rarefied form of America’s addiction to self-rule, which denies much of our humanity: our fragile bodies, our finitude, our need to stare down our deaths (at least once in a while) and be filled with dread and wonder. At some point, we must say to ourselves, I’m going to need to let go."

The Prosperity Gospel has replaced faith with certainty.

Oh, certainty - the sweet comfort of knowing.  The easy predictability of a "vending machine god"-- you put in your coins and out pops a bag of peanut M&Ms.  How often do I worship that god, and then am disillusioned or disappointed when He doesn't fulfill His end of the bargain?

Reader, I pray that we will be secure enough in the Gospel of Grace to weigh both the blessings and tragedies of this life as circumstances: not as rewards or punishments. I pray that we can trust fully in the work of the Cross; that we can rest in the truth that God's wrath was poured out on the Innocent One. Because of Jesus, we are free to live and love and serve God as children - not as debtors. Hallelujah, what a Savior!