How do you figure God wants us to be healthy, wealthy, and wise?

I have never understood that God wants us wealthy. At least not in the monetary sense.

I am in no position whatsoever to presume or assume or even make an educated guess as to what god wants, so I don’t presume to even speculate, at least not out loud.

I think Ben Franklin is the one who wanted us to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Because “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Ben Franklin. A man who found proof of god in nature and reason. :-)

@lillycoyote, and that’s why he’s my favorite Founding Father. He was a total badass.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Yeah. His fluther user name might have been @Founding_Father_of_Bastard_Children.

@lillycoyote I totally just shot Yoohoo out of my nose and all over my laptop screen. I’ve never lol’d so hard in my life.

If he’s @Founding_Father_of_Bastard_Children…

Then can I be @Rebounding_Father_of_Bastard_Children…?

“Healthy, wealthy, and wise” comes from a longer epigram, “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” coined by Benjamin Franklin.
Who, I might add, was something of an atheist.

I can see God wanting us to be healthy, and Scripture makes it quite clear that He’s big on wisdom, but the Bible never fails to cast earthly riches as a hindrance, and in Matthew 6:19 Jesus goes so far as to advise, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.”

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I think I like Resounding_Father_of_Bastard_Children better, but that’s just me.

And @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard So you’re a Yoohoo guy? Sorry about your keyboard. I’ll try to control myself from here on in.

@lillycoyote Yoohoo and IBC Cream Soda are my two comfort drinks. Haha, the keyboard is okay. I needed the laugh.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Ol’ Ben would make a good model for a deity. Him and Mark Twain.

@Nullo There are many places in the Bible where the Lord says he wants to make his children prosperous; Ps 128:2, Pr 13:21, Jos 1:8, 1king2:3, etc. And many were quite wealthy, Abram, Jacob, Esau, Job, Solomon, etc. It would logically believe the Lord would not switch positions to make latter Christians poor beggars or deep in debt to others. Along with wisdon and health can see one having an abundant life if ill wealth would be part of it. I think it was not the wealth or possessions that were the problem many great men of God were but how latter Christians handled it since they did not have as a direct speaking relationship with God. Yeah, surely for later Christians as well as modern Christians money can be a distraction and tempation to carefuly watch.

@Hypocrisy_Central You mention a lot of characters from the Old Testament, but then Christians believe that there was a reason God decided to send down his Son…

“Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’”
Matthew 19:21

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”
Matthew 19:23–24

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
1 Timothy 6:17–19

@Hypocrisy_Central You’re right on many points; I was too hasty in my posting. I keep Fluthing while tired. It rarely ends well, yet I keep doing it. More on this when I’ve got some sleep.

“Healthy, wealthy and wise” is a man-made desire. God has nothing to do with it.

I thought God want you to be not materialistic.He made his disciples walk around with no possessions but the clothes on there backs. I am no expert though.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land, that’s a church I would attend!

How can we help the poor if we are poor ourselves? Money is not evil but greed is… We are to care for the widows and orphans and we can’t do that without money so I see nothing wrong with wealth because without it there can be no charity.

@harple “Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” Matthew 19:21 The whole context of that was germane to the rich young man who was not full in his heart about what he was saying so the Lord put it to him that if he was as sincere as he professed he would sell all he had and take up the gospel.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”
Matthew 19:23–24 The disciples had a special duty and place just as the high priest, they had a special calling and function and since they were nomadic having a lot of possessions would not have been feasible anyhow. As it says in Eph 4:11”It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelist, and some to be pastors and teachers….” I could speculate a lot with my limited earthly mind why the disciples and prophets were called to be poor, less distraction, less temptation, to visually set themselves apart from the Pharisees and the Sadducees –which to me seem a bit to preoccupied with money—, but in the end only God knows that one. Mal 3:10 why would the Lord say you will have such abundance that you won’t have a place to put it all if not something tangible? I think people mistake having possessions and maybe a lot of it as being materialistic, that would be the same as saying anyone with a pistol much less several is criminally minded, violent or some gun toting lunatic. The pistol is just a pistol as money is just money and possessions are just things, it is the intent of who controls it that is in question.

@gravity
How can we help the poor if we are poor ourselves? Money is not evil but greed is… Blessed are the ones who can see pass the horizon. :-D As Eph 3:11 & 12 shows that when the Lord blesses His children there is a trickle down affect which can’t happen if you have nothing to start with. How can Christians bless anyone or share anything they don’t have? Nothing from nothing leaves you with nothing.

@Hypocrisy_Central I take on board what you are saying – money is just money etc – but I fail to see how, from this, you figure that God wants us to be wealthy?

I am wealthy for the attributes I have learnt from other good people through my life, and from what I am able to give to others – compassion, love etc. I do not need money to give these, I do not need money to give my spare time to help those less fortunate than myself…

I say all this with the upmost respect, and in no way would I ever imply that money or having it is evil.

Also there are many examples of how God blesses those who abide in Him and serve Him. Look at Job, he had much as he had God’s favor on him, even after he lost everything due to Lucifer’s testing, he had double in the end.

@harple I take on board what you are saying – money is just money etc – but I fail to see how, from this, you figure that God wants us to be wealthy? I take it that way because the Lord himself as not only shown it as a pattern over centuries, He hasn’t changed his stance I believe and he has said so in his Word. While giving compassion and love, plus understanding etc, to another it won’t stop you from helping them repair a leaky roof if you have the means to do so before winter hits. If you have extra then you can give to them and pay for a new roof with the compassion you have for free.

I do not need money to give my spare time to help those less fortunate than myself… No you don’t need money for that, but if you want to clothe a family doing worse off than you so the parents have attire to go to work in and the kids to school it helps way better if you have some dead presidents they may not be the right size for all your hand-me-downs” ;-)

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I’d throw Jefferson into that pantheon also. He took a pair of scissors to the NT and pasted together what he thought Yeshua of Nazareth actually said. Got it down to about 20 pages.

I would turn it around and say I don’t think God wants us to be sick, poor and stupid. I have no evidence for that however.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land, yep, the Jefferson Bible. Interesting stuff.