"Talking about wealth and blessing is shallow; mature believers focus on suffering and sacrifice."
How it sounds in your head: The deeper I go in faith communities, the more they emphasize the cross, suffering, and sacrifice. Talking about money feels carnal. Mature Christianity is about dying to self, not receiving abundance. Wanting blessing feels spiritually immature.
"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers."
-- 3 John 2Religion glorifying poverty and suffering as superior spirituality, twisting the cross into ongoing punishment.
Every 'deep' teaching focuses on sacrifice and dying to self. Leaders who talk prosperity are dismissed as shallow. The theology you respect emphasizes suffering as Christlikeness, making blessing feel unspiritual.
After Job's suffering, the Lord gave him TWICE as much as he had before—14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 oxen, 1,000 donkeys. God didn't leave him in the 'spiritual maturity' of loss. He RESTORED and DOUBLED his material wealth as a sign of favor.
I REFUSE the lie that spiritual maturity means rejecting material blessing. IT IS WRITTEN that the apostle John prayed for PROSPERITY and HEALTH. Job's end was TWICE as blessed as his beginning. Jesus took the SUFFERING so I could receive the ABUNDANCE. IT IS WRITTEN in Isaiah 53:5 - by His stripes I am healed. By His poverty I am MADE RICH. The cross purchased BOTH spiritual and material blessing. I reject poverty theology that makes lack look holy. I receive the FULL inheritance NOW.
The Father didn't send Jesus to the cross so you could have a theology of suffering. He sent Him so the CURSE could die there and you could live in BLESSING—He wants you whole, healthy, and abundantly provided for because that's what the cross PURCHASED.