Originally Posted by
Colonel
Basics of prosperity.
Mat 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.
The wording is important because it includes the day worker, the lowest among the payed workers in Israel at that time. They showed up somewhere, were given a task involving manual unskilled labor and received their pay at the end of the day which was enough for sustaining themselves on food. In world terms, this is the reality very many people face, of finding something to eat during each day. This is basic prosperity. It is an important and useful message to many people, that God wishes to meet that need in his children.
6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Here Jesus adds clothing. He doesn't connect clothing to looking fashionable or prosperous, he connects it to not having to worry about the body. As protection against the elements, basically. Sun, rain, wind, heat, cold. Having shelter could be included in this though many people around the world wear lose clothing that they can wrap around themselves as they sleep on the ground and use that as a form of basic shelter. He says that God knows that we need these things and they are also part of basic prosperity, an important message to many people worldwide.
We may include basic health as part of prosperity but I won't go into scriptures on that. What's the use of having enough food and water if your body is withering away because of sickness. Or of finding work so you can get payed and have all the mentioned things if you cannot work because you are too sick ? And so on. Yet another important message to people all over the world, especially in areas where diseases run rampant and health care is scarcely available, especially to people who aren't rich.
2 Cor 8:13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little
The goal in the above is not that the rich should have as much as the very rich, the goal is that every basic need should be met.
2 Cor 9:8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
This is God's basic plan for meeting everyone's need, to bless people with enough surplus that they will be able to give out of their abundance and thereby create an overflow. God supplies that overflow so as to keep it running. The aim is again not to make the rich richer so that they can match the very rich but to supply needs elsewhere.