I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 10:10 (NIV)

Many in the church are suspicious of the idea God wants us to live prosperous lives. They think such an idea is a selfish reframing of the Gospel, as though Jesus went to the Cross for other reasons, and we human beings in our self-centeredness have somehow found a way to make it all about us. In a way, such caution is merited; we are, after all, good at interpreting things from the standpoint of our own self-centeredness, not to mention good at making things all about us.

Still, I find it difficult to make the Cross not about us when we consider Jesus went to the Cross to give us abundant life for no other reason than his love for us. Think about it: Jesus died that we not only would not receive what we rightly deserve by also receive what we do not deserve, namely abundant life. That sounds a whole lot like a God wanting to prosper us.

If you have difficulty accepting God wants you to prosper, ask yourself whether you will prosper once you are in heaven. Heaven, after all, is what Jesus paid for at the Cross. Will you experience the abundance of good things in heaven, or will you be living a life of eternal lack and sacrifice? I hope you realize it is the former. But if this is so, what then is keeping Jesus from giving you what he paid for now? Why would a God who went to so much trouble to give you everything withhold from you now?

I think the answer for many of us is we still think we are earning our salvation. Life on earth is where we be good to earn heaven, and heaven is where we cash in on all our good behavior. Which makes sense, apart from the Cross. If we are alienated from the Cross, we have a deep-seated belief we do not deserve anything. But when we encounter the Cross, we come to realize there is really nothing God would withhold from us.