Sounds like you are only praying to God to get some temporary relief from some kind of financial or physical burden. It sounds like you are very religious. Helping others despite your own situation is a good thing. Praying is a good thing.

But here is the problem – judging from what you have written, you aren’t trusting God. This is not a “your faith is not big enough” situation. I am not saying you don’t have money because you need more faith. The issue is much bigger than that.

The issue is sin. You have it. Everyone does. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And because of this sin, you can’t communicate with God, and you are out of God’s will. The end result of this rebellion (whether it is open rebellion, or subtle self righteousness and confidence in your own ability), is hell.

But, God, in His great mercy, sent a redeemer. A sinless Saviour who took your sin upon Himself, and bore it to death. IN other words, JEsus Christ took the punishment due to you upon Himself. He died in your place. All He asks is that you believe that Jesus died to save you from hell, from your sins and from yourself. If you believe the gospel (1 Cor 15:1-4), then Jesus has saved you.

And then, you can ask God for help with finances. But if the finances don’t arrive, you can rest assured that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). You can rest assured that no matter what circumstance you are in, God is good, and is working things out according to His will.

And you will also be given spiritual eyes to see through the lies that these televangelists preach. They are wolves in sheeps clothing.

Praying for you debbie. Please ask any questions you might have

Are you a Amway distributor? Interesting blog. I live in So.Cal and not all money preachers( probably a bad title) are bad guys. I personally know some great Kingdom people that are prosperity preachers that do not stuff their pockets.
I look forward to reading more.
Be blessed,
Mike

God does buddy.

WORKS WORKS WORKS.

Even so, I always vigorously oppose the notion that Christians should be identified by the good life they live compared to the world because so many people are eager to add works to the plan of salvation. There are no works required for salvation, and salvation is not dependent on anyone’s ability or even willingness to give up any sin in his life.

I’m not disputing the points already made in response to this, but I personally think that if you really have “all faith in Christ” it is extremely unlikely that you will rob, cheat, and murder on a regular basis for the “rest of your life” (assuming the “rest of your life” is more than, say, a few more minutes) at the same rate you robbed, cheated, and murdered back when you had no faith in Christ.

If you’re not arguing sinless perfection, you’re suggesting that salvation requires us to give up some of our sin, or at least the “bad” ones, but we’re free to keep on doing the ones that aren’t so bad. But every time we sin, we are choosing to disobey God.

Going back to the passage I referenced in the original post. What did Jesus tell the woman at the well? “If you know who I am and the gift that God offers, you’d ask and I’d give you Living Water.” Even though we discover later in the chapter that this woman was living a very sinful life, Jesus did not precondition God’s gift on her willingness to give up any sin. This isn’t to say that Jesus didn’t want her to give up this sin in her life, of course. But if she had to give up something to receive the Living Water, would it still be a gift? This is why boasting is excluded. Romans 4:1-8 says:

1What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

If we are saved, even in part, because of something we do, we have earned something. We could boast about what we have done. But only when we understand that we play no part in our own salvation is boasting excluded and all the glory given to God.

But if by “okay” you mean that a born again believer who robs, cheats and murders will still be saved, then the answer is yes. We are not saved by our own merit. I’m not sure why this is so hard for people to understand. People constantly talk about the believer who lies, cheats and murders, but never about the believer who lusts, covets or is lazy at work. Why? Because deep down most people don’t really feel they deserve to go to hell for their sins. They feel that other people might deserve it –you know, the ones that do the sins they don’t do — but they really don’t think they’re doing anything bad enough that God won’t just overlook it.

Either we are saved by faith or we are saved by faith + living a minimally good life. Those are two different plans of salvation and only one is taught in the bible. We are called to good works. We are called to walk in the Spirit. But we aren’t required to DO anything to be born again. The only prerequisite to salvation is putting all of our hope and faith in Jesus Christ. If murder is a disqualifier, we are putting some of our faith in our our ability to not commit the sin of murder. If robbery is a disqualifier, we are putting some of our faith in our own ability not to rob another. In other words, if you believe you have some good works you MUST do to be saved, your faith in yourself and your own good life. That’s a belief you must repent of and call on the name of the Lord for salvation.