Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"
Many Christians look at this verse and take it terribly out of context, thinking that when God says He wants to prosper us, He means He wants to make all Christians financially rich. This could not be farther from the truth.
That doesn't mean that being rich is not God's will for anyone at all. God has called various people in the Bible and even in the world today to experience financial abundance for His glory and honor. But it is not God's will for everyone to have a lot of money.
Two misconceptions spring from a wrong line of thinking about God's provident plan for riches: First is that being financially rich means being blessed and the opposite means being cursed; and second is that the riches God speaks of are limited to monetary riches.
God has a plan to prosper everyone, but sometimes money can be a hindrance and not evidence of that prosperity. At the end of the day, it all boils down to God's will and what He has made us to be.
Here are three reasons why God has not made you rich, or why He has withheld riches from you in this season of your life.
Because it will limit you, not enable you in this season
Psalm 52:7 says, "See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!" Money is not all as good as we think it is. We often are led to believe that the more money we have, the greater our capacity is.
But there comes a time and a season where God limits our financial pour-in, not to limit us but to enable us some more.
Because He wants you to be rich in other things first
Money is valuable, but it's not the most valuable thing that exists. There are so many other things that are more valuable than money such as relationships, time, peace, wisdom and God's satisfaction. Often God gives us much of all these, but we are too busy looking for the value that is money to even notice them.
Ephesians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places."
Because it's not His will for you
God knows what's best, and God may sometimes call some people to not be abundant in monetary wealth. That's not to say that God wants anyone to go hungry or live in slums, I don't believe any of that either.
However, I believe that God has given us the ability to produce wealth that can cover for our needs and even give us an excess that can be used as a blessing for others. The size of that excess doesn't matter because God knows what we need and when we need it.
