Living in poverty can actually create a backwards sense of entitlement. It can cause you to feel that you have the right to tell other people how to spend their money. An amount of money that you have most likely never stewarded.
If you have not stewarded a large amount of money, how can you say what someone else should do with it? You’re actually speaking out of line. “We could feed the world’s people” is a commonly said statement. However, it is actually a poverty mentality and an attitude of entitlement.
Remember, it was Judas who said, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” – John 12:5. A lot of people are quoting Judas’ word thinking they are quoting Jesus.
God’s kingdom is not His people living on handouts. We should be going people hand ups. I’m not saying that handouts won’t be there and last for a season. However, there comes a time when we need to move on.
In the entire Gospels, Jesus never gave anyone money. The closest thing was Peter getting his tax money from a fish’s mouth. The lepers were homeless, but Jesus didn’t give them a home. Instead, He healed them so they could go out and work. Jesus healed the lame man and the man with the withered hand. Both were also probably impoverished.
Jesus gives you the power to get wealth because He doesn’t want you to live and get used to the comfort of handouts. It’s unnatural. A dog lives off of handouts and scraps.
We are made by God to use the grace or power that He has given us to make wealth. He will prosper the work of our hands not the work of someone else’s handout.
This is something that’s come to my mind over the past few months. I grew up below poverty level, but I never resented the wealthy. I always felt strongly that I should never be bitter or angry against them. Now I know why. If you resent the wealthy, you will never achieve their successes.
We have a false dichotomy that rich = bad and poor = good. We have the association in our own minds that wealth and evil have a close association. Wrong! It is just easier to do more evil if you have the means.
I hear so many people complain about the injustices of the rich and then I look at their lives and see that they are financially poor. Time and time again I have seen this pattern. I know that their view and perceptions on wealth are blocking them from walking in financial prosperity. You cannot receive what you resent in other people.
I hear people complain about “the rich” all the time and how they are “what’s wrong” with America. How dare you make such an accusation against someone you don’t even know! What’s wrong is your mentality and attitude. Part of a spirit of poverty is the resentment of those who have achieved success.
If we really examine what this attitude is all about, it’s based upon a lie that “they” have and we don’t. It’s also jealousy. That is not God’s Kingdom mentality. If you have this thought process, you will always be poor and struggle financially. Period. Stop wishing you had someone else’s riches and start using the grace that God has given you to make your own.
Wealth is a part of the covenant through Christ Jesus.
“But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
Deuteronomy 8:18 NASB