The Danger of Prosperity

Thinking through the implications of Jeremiah 22.21 this morning. I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, "I will not listen." The Hebrew word translated "prosperity" ‏בְּשַׁלְוֹתַ֔יִךְ is one that means "a time of ease or unconcern." So God is saying, "when things were going well for you, I tried to get your attention, but you would not listen." This is the danger of prosperity, the danger of having it too good. When all of our needs are met; when we are not in a crisis, we tend to forget God and rely on ourselves. It's no use damning the people of Judah if we do not bother to search through our own hearts and ask, "Lord, is this me?"

My own heart is prone to wander in prosperity; prone to forget about God, or, as the songwriter put it, Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love. Just so. What can keep us faithful? What can keep us obedient? My own theory is that saturation in the word of God is the first key, because it exposes our heart again and again as the Holy Spirit uses it—it is, after all, sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb 4.12)—to get at our heart and motives and remind us again and again how essential it is to obey God's word.

Are you saturated in the Word of God? If not, you are treading a thin plank indeed.