“‘But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places, yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the LORD. Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. Then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain; one part would be rained on, while the part not rained on would dry up. So two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, but would not be satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the LORD” (Amos 4:6-8).
The prosperity gospel has always been, and will always be, a very popular message. And why not? Who doesn’t want to hear about being happy, healthy, and wealthy if only we have enough faith in God, and give enough money to the preacher, of course.
For even life in the land of milk and honey without wholehearted love for God is no better than life in exile.
God’s will for his people, however, has always been for us to love him first, to love him most, to love him for who he is, and not because of what he gives us. For this reason, our heavenly Father is willing to prevent prosperity and use deprivation to loosen our greedy grip on the idols of prosperity and on an ungodly love for the things of this world.
This is exactly what we see in Amos chapter 4. Five times in this chapter God tells his people that he is the one who prevented prosperity and brought adversity, not to harm them, but to bring them to their senses so they would return to him (Amos 4:6, 8-11; see Luke 15:14-20).
Indeed, God’s desire is to bring us to a land of plenty, flowing with milk and honey. But the journey to the Promised Land necessarily involves difficult times of thirst and hunger in the desert. For even life in the land of milk and honey without wholehearted love for God is no better than life in exile.
