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Poverty
by Nellie Shani Adam and Eve took the abundance that God had put at their disposal, and gave it over to Satan. In Genesis 1:26 (NIV) God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them ruleover all the earth, and over all creatures that move along the ground. Through disobedience man took this ruler-ship and gave it over to Satan. He boasted about this to Jesus Christ during the time when he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me (emphasis mine), and I can give it to anyone I want to, so if you worship me it will all be your(Luke 4:5-7 (NIV)). Who gave Satan the kingdoms of the world? Adam and Eve! If this were not so, Jesus would have told Satan, Get thee behind me Liar! Instead Jesus said, It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. By making man in His image, God made man glorious because He, God, is glorious. Mans glory shines through when he is worshiping God. When man worships anything less than Jehovah God, he exchanges his glory for something worthless. Jeremiah 2:11 (NIV) But my people have exchanged their glory for worthless idols. Poverty takes away mans glory and leaves him feeling worthless. It was never Gods intent for man to be poor. When He called Abram to leave his country and to go to a land that he would show him, Abram obeyed Him. How did God take care of him? Genesis 13:2 (NIV), opens to us a window into Abrams prosperity. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. Further on in verse 6 we are told that Abram and his nephew lot who had traveled with him became so rich that they had to separate. But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. Through Jobs life, the Bible also teaches us about Gods generosity towards His people. In the first chapter of the book of Job we are told that he was upright, blameless, feared God and shunned evil. The personal account of Job should have stopped there if the only important aspect of his life was his walk with God. His walk with God only told half the story! We are told about Job, And he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East (Job 1:3 (NIV)). Satan accused Job before God, of only serving God because of the things God had given him. God allowed Satan to take away every possession that Job had, yet Job did not turn his back on God. The Scriptures say that in the end, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had beforethe Lord blessed the latter part of Jobs life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys (Job 42:10-12 (NIV)). How much more generous can God be towards his people? To sleep on an empty stomach leaves a person feeling worthless. To have no clothes on ones back and no roof over ones head leaves a person feeling worthless. A look at the world around us will show us clearly that poverty is brought about by the greed of man. The 20/80 principle says that only 20% of people in the world own 80% of the worlds riches. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. To eradicate poverty God would have to radically change the evil and greedy heart of man. Because man has a free will - which he often allows Satan to manipulate - as long as man exists poverty will exist. The poor you will always have with you (Mark 14:7 (NIV)). Nellie Odhuno Shani is a Counselor, Conference speaker and writer. Her first books are available on amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles and on her author's websites. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |