Inside every soul is the desire to prosper. Have you spent much time thinking about what makes you feel prosperous? Is it financial security, physical security, good health, good relationships, being in control, lack of stress, or plenty of vacation time? Many people have a hard time answering these questions because they have never really stopped to consider what prosperity is and what a truly prosperous life looks and feels like. Life moves quickly, often with little or no margin to consider what we are really working and striving for.

The world around us is constantly defining prosperity for us and subtly forming within us its vision of a prosperous life. Confusion and even disillusionment takes over when this ingrained worldly vision of prosperity clashes with the harsh realities of life. Relational trauma, health issues, economic and social unrest, and ultimately death powerfully erode this worldly vision of prosperity, which in the West has been defined as the American Dream.

There are two primary responses of our heart to this clash: Our heart will either harden to the harsh realities of life and try to hold on more tightly to the worldly vision of prosperity, or our heart will seek to find a better, more satisfying vision of prosperity. This pursuit is primarily a spiritual pursuit that seeks to find a path that can make sense of all the suffering in the world and at the same time offer a satisfying vision of prosperity.

The desire to make sense of the tension between prosperity and suffering is underlying almost every problem in life. Balance in life is elusive. Balance is something of this world. It is what we attempt to do on our own. Living in balance is impossible when the following two big questions go unanswered:

Does God have good things for me?

 How do I handle evil and suffering?

Many struggle with these questions because they have neither understood nor experienced the depth and breadth of the Gospel and how faith holds together the tension between suffering and prosperity.

True prosperity is living in the tension between evil and suffering and the goodness of God by the power and promises of the Gospel.

 (Taken from How To Live in Prosperity in a Suffering World pages 2-3. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle version)