Ever wonder why we pray in Jesus’ name all the time. John14:13 – 14 answers this question:
13 Whatever
you ask for in My name, I will do it so that the Father will get glory from the
Son.14 Let Me say it again: if you ask for
anything in My name, I will do it.
This is one of the main verses prosperity preachers hang
their hats on since it says things like “whatever” and “anything” so therefore it
makes Jesus look like a genie and not a savior of the world. That’s the biggest
problem with the prosperity gospel! It has people believing that God will give
them “anything” they ask for including the lottery jackpot. What happens when
they don’t get what they want, their faith fails.
Now subsequent to this Jesus was saying we can do great things
and that HE is the way, the truth and the life. So to believe that God is a
genie as long as we ask in Jesus’ name is false theology. I believe God opens
up his store in blessing, but that’s after trials and teachings.
I think of when I first bought into the “prosperity gospel”,
we were bleeding financially and needed a saving windfall. I prayed and prayed
for that lottery win since it was the only way I could see this ending. For
months and years we got deeper into debt and the lottery was never won, except
for maybe one $5 windfall. Then as it was getting real ugly, we got an offer on
the house. It wasn’t a lottery win, but it would clean the slate and allow us
to purchase the building we wanted.
That deal fell through and we were in a mess and continued
to let it slide until December of 2008 when I was given the Dave Ramsey’s Money
Makeover and decided it was time to fix things. We looked at bankruptcy but
that was not an option since we had equity in multiple real estate holding.
With this we had to pay off $176k of credit card debt while keeping a half a
million in home loans afloat. It was not easy but after a controlled liquidation
of our assets we paid off all the credit cards and are looking at paying off
all home loans. We don’t have the empire of rental homes anymore, but we don’t
have the stress either!!
My point is not that God did not do what I prayed for, but
rather he did not do it my way but rather His way. If he had paid things off
before learning to be wise with our money, we would never taught us to not
continue the spending cycle without the pain of dealing with the problem.
I know this story has a mixed message where God in a way
gave us what we prayed for yet it was through trials and difficulties that it
happened. Not like how a “genie” would have done it!! So while I am saying we
prayed in Jesus’ name for freedom of debt, which looked totally different from
how we determined it should. So while we did not get a lottery win, I got work
when we needed it and assets sold at the perfect time to allow us freedom from
debt.
The point is not to fall for the prosperity gospel of
praying for what you want, rather focus on what you need and go further to pray
for others. Remove the inward focus on prayer and rather focus external. Sure
you can pray for your needs and desires, but focus on others FIRST and do that
in Jesus’ name!! Also, don’t get bummed when things don’t go exactly how you
desire. Which again makes me wonder if we can do greater
things and are just not trying?