"God allowed this financial loss to teach me contentment with less in my final years."
How it sounds in your head: Maybe this is God's way of stripping away materialism before you die. Maybe He's teaching you to be satisfied with little, to learn what really matters. After all, you can't take it with you. This loss is probably His way of preparing you for eternity by detaching you from earthly things.
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
-- John 10:10Religion making God the author of financial loss, twisting suffering into spiritual formation and calling poverty a teaching tool.
Many sermons teach that God uses hardship to teach lessons, and Scripture does mention contentment. At end of life, simplification and letting go are common themes that seem spiritual.
After wasting EVERYTHING on prostitutes and ending up broke and desperate, the father didn't use poverty to teach contentment. The INSTANT the son returned, the father gave him robe (identity), ring (authority), sandals (sonship), and threw an extravagant feast—lavish abundance, not lessons in lack.
I REFUSE the lie that God authors financial loss to teach me lessons. IT IS WRITTEN that the THIEF steals but Jesus came for ABUNDANT life. My Father didn't teach the prodigal through poverty—He LAVISHED him with robe, ring, and feast IMMEDIATELY. The BARAK blessing is mine by covenant—Deuteronomy 28 BLESSINGS, not CURSES. IT IS WRITTEN that every good and perfect gift comes FROM the Father. I receive the prodigal's INSTANT RESTORATION—from poverty to party in minutes—because my Father runs toward me with abundance, not lessons in lack. He gives MORE ABUNDANTLY, not less.
While you're trying to make peace with loss by calling it God's teaching, the Father is running toward you saying 'I didn't take anything to teach you—the THIEF steals, but I give ABUNDANTLY.' He's not stripping you for spiritual growth; He's clothing you with the ROBE and throwing a feast because lavish love is who He is.