Bible Studies
Does God want everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise? Run that question by a charismatic television preacher and by a conservative evangelical and you’re likely to get an answer from different ends of the spectrum. So what’s the correct answer? Well, the answer to that question is yes and no.
Let’s start with the no side of the table. From the get go, man was given strict orders by God (Genesis 2:15 – 17). We all know how it turned out. Adam disobeyed (3:6), lost the right to live in a luxurious paradise (3:24), and eventually died (5:5). Angels were put in place to keep man out (3:24). There was also and devastating side effect to man’s disobedience. Theologians like to call this imputation. We have all inherited our sin nature from our parents, but even before we were born and due to Adam’s sin, it was imputed or placed into our account – “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all have sinned.” – Romans 5:12. So what we see here is God, because of sin, disallowing man the best he could have possessed. For example, although he asked three times, Paul did not get his healing (2 Corinthians 12:7 – 9). He was not able to heal Epaphroditis (Philippians 2:25 – 30) or Trophimus (2 Timothy 4:20). Not every believer was rich (1 Timothy 6:17). Not all are wise (Romans 1:21 – 22). So in that sense, God does not want everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise. But is there any good news? Of course there is.
On the yes side of the ledger, there is much hope. The word good appears seven times in Genesis 1. So God originally intended for man to have all the best in health, wealth, and wisdom man could handle. Even if you take a peek at the end in Revelation 21 and 22, same story, everything is perfect for man. So in that sense, God does want everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise.
But does not God give us all we want? After all, does not Psalm 37:4, John 10:10, and 15:7, to name a few, promise it? Well, not exactly. In Psalm 37:4, when you are delighted “in the Lord,” his desires become your desires. As a result, you will ask for things, even those for yourself, that make him happy, not you. Unfortunately, many have used this verse erroneously to make God out to be a spiritual genie. In John 10:10, the Greek word abundantly means “all the more.” It is used in the context of the justified having a shepherd/sheep relationship with their Savior. What a Christian gets from Jesus is “all the more” than any unsaved person could ever have. In John 15:7 the answer to prayer is yes, so long as the context of that request involves producing fruit. In other words, when your prayers are geared towards increasing the kingdom, the answer is yes. It’s a blank check from God where the funds are to be used for his agenda, not yours.
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