Fourth Lesson: How To Be Wealthy, Healthy and Happy
You need to be transformed from a non-believer to a believer. You are a non-believer if you believe that God can love you only if you are good and He will punish you if you are bad.
You are a believer, however, if you believe that God loves you with an everlasting love whether you are good or bad. The bad things that happen in your life are not God’s punishment for your sins. These bad things happen every time you refuse to accept God’s everlasting love for you.
Unfortunately, your orthodox Christian upbringing led you to believe that God doles out punishment when you sin. The same culture gave you a picture of a God that doles out punishment as illness, poverty, bad luck, and broken marriages. The same culture has led you to believe that when you die with sin, your punishment will be eternity in a place called Hell. Eternal damnation is a very long time.
Your well-meaning teachers have led you to believe that you deserve this punishment because you have been bad. Now, is that a picture of a loving Father? Is this a picture of a Father whose good pleasure is “to give you the Kingdom?” Is this a picture of a Father who loves you with an everlasting love?
The truth is: you are a beloved child of God and because God loves you with an everlasting love, God gave you all the tools that you can use to achieve prosperity, health, and happiness. What have you done, so far, with these gifts? You have, undoubtedly, continued to refuse to use these tools properly. As a result of your refusal to use these tools properly, you are poor, ill, and unhappy. God has nothing to do with your sufferings. Your sufferings are by-products of your choices.
“... decide today whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)
God, our Father, has provided us with all the tools for living. In His ministry, Jesus dedicated himself to teaching us the proper way to use these tools for living.
What is incomprehensible is that you still believe that every time you refuse to use the tools properly, God comes down to punish you.
For example: You gave two people a pair of shoes each. You told them to cross a dry river bed that was a hundred meters wide. On the river bed were razor-sharp stones with jagged edges that could cut flesh. One crossed the river bed with his shoes on. The other crossed the river without his shoes on. The person who wore his shoes reached the other side of the river without injury. The one who crossed the river without shoes suffered lacerations and injuries to his feet. When you saw the one who crossed the river without shoes, did you go and punish that person and cause his foot to suffer lacerations and injury? No, you did not. He, himself, caused his own lacerations and injuries. Yet, many of us believe that God is constantly watching us, and with every little mistake that we make, He comes down and punishes us.
If you continue to believe that God is always watching you and making a list of who is naughty or nice, you are a non-believer. To become a believer, you must follow what Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans: Renew your mind.
Nest posting will give you the necessary tools for the renewal of your mind.
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO YOU series
Religion and Philosophy,Israel,Gospel,Gospel According to You
