DOES A CHRISTIAN ALSO SUFFER LACK AND WANT?

In the voyage of life, we find a lot of things that are troubling and disheartening to say the least. A lot of people who are considered Christians and children of God appear to be the ones mostly in need of help (materially, financially and otherwise) as some appear so wretched and poor when you compare them with the children of the world who know nothing about God and what God can do: in fact, who don’t even believe that God exist. The question that quickly comes to mind is whether God delights in the prosperity or poverty of His children (sons and daughters)? Does God derive pleasure when He sees His sons and daughters who calls upon his name go through unending and lingering tough times? Does He lack the ability to change the fortunes of these men and women (sons and daughters) whose constant expectation is on Him? Or are these so-called Christians lacking in a particular wisdom or knowledge? For it is written that my people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). In a quest to proffering answers to these questions; I would like to give you a brief background into the happenings or experiences of men who are considered pillars to the faith called Christianity as reported in the Bible. At the end of this exposition, the choice would be entirely yours to decide the answer to the question, “Does a Christian also suffer lack and want?”

Firstly, let us consider the man called Abraham (formally Abram) who was called by God in Genesis 12 to leave his father’s land and go into a land (unknown) that God would show him and he obeyed. Now, in the course of Abraham’s migration from place to place on the surface of the end; he was met with famine and decided to go down to Egypt in search of food so as not to perish from the scourge of hunger and starvation. He even had to lie to Pharaoh and his princes that Sarah was only her sister and not her wife and thus, Pharaoh married Sarah (since she was very beautiful) and because of Sarah, Abraham was treated well in Egypt. God plagued Pharaoh and his household and Pharaoh discovered that Abraham had lied to them and thus, Pharaoh sent him out of his land (Egypt) but by this time, Abraham had amassed cattle, silver, gold, maidservants and male servants (He became very wealthy). I therefore, ask the question; why did Abraham go down to Egypt? This was because he needed food and there was famine in the land. However, the important thing to note is that at the end of this one time of lack experienced by Abraham, he never had any lack (food or money) ever again until his death at 175 years of age. He was wealthy all the remaining part of his life thus, I make bold to say that if you are always in need; you need to ask yourself some hard questions or don’t you think so?

Secondly, let us consider another man and that is Jesus Christ himself. There is an account in Matthew 4 of Jesus asking a woman of Samaria for drinking water and when the woman refused to give him drinking water because; she was a Jew and the Jews had nothing in common with the Samaritan; He said unto her, “If you know the gift of God and who it is that is asking you to give him drinking water; you would have asked him of living water and he would have given it to you.” The fact is that even if Jesus had living water, he still needed drinking water. We also read about Jesus feeding five thousand people besides women and children in Matthew 14:14-21 with just five loaves and two fishes which were borrowed from a small boy (He simply multiplied the five loaves and two fishes). However, we know that it wasn’t always like this because, when Jesus told Judas to do what he wanted to do quickly (that is, betray him) when they sat to eat the last supper; it was recorded that the other disciples thought he had told Judas to go and buy something or to give some money to the poor because; Judas was in the custody of his money (John 13:27-29). Therefore, we discovered that even Jesus Christ had times where he needed help even though; He gave help to others most of the time.

The third person to consider is Peter and John, when they were going to pray in the temple at the hour of prayer and saw a man lame from his mother’s womb as seen in Acts 3:1-10. This man asked them for money but Peter said, “Silver and Gold we have none but what we have; we give it unto you, in the name of Jesus, rise up and work.” Now, what I want to point out here is that they didn’t have money to give the lame man at the beautiful gate but nonetheless, we know they were rich people because, they were professional fishermen and had boats (which were costly at the time). In short, for Peter; the disciples and Jesus often resulted to his house for their meal and that was why on one of these occasions, Jesus had to heal the mother in law of Peter who was down with fever so that she can serve them food. Thus, we can see that peter also lacked sometimes but it wasn’t forever, it was an intermittent experience.

The last person I would consider for want of time is the apostle Paul. I cannot remember the number of times Paul demanded prayers for himself and those that were co-labourers with him. He made the statement, I have learnt how to be abased (in lack) and how to abound (in abundance)” and that the reason for his becoming many things to all men is so that by any means, he can save some. He made one striking remark in 1 Corinthians 9:11 that “if we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” which suggested that Paul also suffered lack at some point. Yet, Paul still had so much as to be held in prison just because, he refused to give a bribe to Felix (the Governor) who saw him as a rich and wealthy man as seen in Acts 24:26-27. Thus, no matter how you see it, Paul was not always in need, he had times when he was hungry and suffered lack but also, had times when he was full of abundance. In fact, he sometimes decided to look like a poor man even when he had so much money. Thus, it was difficult to truly tell if he was poor or wealthy at phase value.

Now, having gone through these various scenario; we discovered that nobody that worked with God in the past was poor or wretched and also, that even those that suffered lack at one time or the other; still had more times of abundance that they enjoyed. Thus, it is my firm conclusion that if you suffer for lack of food, clothes and an unending financial or monetary challenge or problem as a Christian then, there is something you are not doing right and I advise you solemnly to renew your mind (change your thought patterns) and start applying the principles of building wealth and abundance as prescribed by the bible, one of which is seen in Malachi 3.

Please, what do you think are some of the other factors responsible for the lack and poverty experienced by some of these Christian brothers and sisters and who almost seem not to practice what they preach?