There is often a chasm between our expectations of life in relationship with God and what God has actually promised, particularly between God’s definition of a blessed life and ours.
When we are candid, we admit that we expect from God a certain degree of direct provision when it comes to health, money and success.
We may be theologically sophisticated enough to reject a “prosperity gospel,” but we still shun sin more to avoid punishment or to curry favor than out of pursuit of virtue. We are called to tithe out of anticipation and worship, but more often we tithe because we read in Malachi 3:10 of a promise that we’ll receive even more (more money, we presume).
Even the most basic spiritual disciplines are all too often motivated by a desire for personal spiritual fulfillment rather than a hunger for intimacy with the living God. We expect direct, tangible, earthly dividends for our investment in following God. Hence the enormous popularity of books both crass and sophisticated that offer keys to successful living, or praying, for God’s favor.
“We naturally and wrongly assume we’re here to experience something God has never promised,” Christian psychologist Larry Crabb writes. When the One we depend on to give us a good life doesn’t deliver, “we feel betrayed, let down, [and] thoroughly disillusioned.”
Is God baiting us with our expectations only to hook us into a life of disappointment?
To ask for God’s blessing, according to the Bible, is to cry out for the incredible, wonderful goodness that only God has the power to give—not to beg God for what we could provide for ourselves.
Biblical characters who sought God’s blessing tended to leave the details up to God so that God’s blessing often translated to increased influence, responsibility, and opportunity to make him known.
Can God’s blessing include increased wealth or success? Of course, but that is not its drive.
The now-famous biblical character Jabez prayed that his territory would be expanded (and seemingly received his wish) so that he could use his greater resources for God—not for his own sense of wellbeing, ego, fame or satisfaction. The motivation for Jabez was to be more and to do more for God, and God seems to have given it to him.
God’s blessing operates as easily through poverty as through prosperity, as evidenced by the lives of Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa. God’s plan for our lives may not include material gain, physical health, relational joy, vocational success and personal fulfillment. It does include character development, soul formation and investment in God’s kingdom. Some Christ followers have learned to embrace this perspective.
