The Illusion of Wealth and the Fear of Missing Out

³³ "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

³³ Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Matthew 6:33 MSG

I believe some people are terrified of missing out on something in life. We look to other people to establish what normal is, and what is excellent and what is above average. We then aim for excellent or above average or somewhere in between.

The truth is that we don't want to lose out on something in the game of life that we can have and enjoy. We don't want to be cheated, outsmarted and left behind - missing out on something good that could be ours. Oftentimes, if we see someone else with something that we feel will bring us pleasure – we want it.

People Hate “Average”

The truth is that we hate the thought of being average. In a country that has a high proportion of prosperous people, so-called average when compared to a world scale, would actually be considered rich. Despite this, the average wage earner in a prosperous country would never consider himself to be rich. It amazes me just how much the classification of “middle class” has gradually expanded over the years to encompass more and more people. It seems that hardly anyone would call themselves “upper class” – as if they would be considered haughty to do so. However, we should be honest and call those who have substantial wealth as being “upper class”.

Comparison with Those in Our Environment

Rather than looking to people of other nations with whom to compare the quality of their lifestyle, many people just look to those people in their immediate vicinity. This can result in a person feeling hard done by, when in actual fact, he has all his needs met and would be considered wealthy in comparison with people from less prosperous nations.

We often content ourselves with the fact that perhaps we will never be totally happy; perhaps we will never be all that he hoped to be. But at least if we can have, and be, just that bit more than the average person or those in our community - then we will have something decent.

This causes us to constantly compete with, and compare ourselves with, other people around us. The people who we compete with, and compare against, are often those people who influence us the most and whom we aspire to be like.

We then work to surround ourselves with people who accept us the way we are; people who we feel we have something in common with; people who can understand us and relate to us - and we with them.

We then seek to avoid those people whom we do not get along with; people we don’t seem to understand; people who perhaps reveal aspects of ourselves that we do not like and wish to avoid.

The people whom we surround ourselves with, then become our world, as we deliberately seek to filter out the people who seem to make life difficult for us. The problem with this is that it can make our perspective on life very narrow as we establish the boundaries of our life, according to what we believe are good and acceptable to us. To an extent, people can almost become like carbon-copies of their friends and relatives with whom they surround themselves with.

Therefore, if a person is naturally competitive and everyone around him has, hypothetically speaking, a ‘C’ class car – he will naturally seek to own a ‘D’ class car. This, he assumes, will make him feel as if he has something that is better than his peers. Prosperity can therefore become the “norm” for those people whose environment constantly bombards their senses with the images of prosperity.

The Illusion of Not Having Enough

The truth of the matter is that people who live in wealthy nations such as the U.S. or U.K. – do not realise just how wealthy they are on a world scale. What might seem like poverty to someone living in a wealthy nation could easily be seen as being rich to someone living in a poor country. If a person lives in a house made of brick – that is a far cry to those millions of people who are living in mud huts in the third world.

Some people might complain that they cannot buy the latest plasma T.V. set. Whilst there are some households that don’t even have a regular supply of electricity. This might seem like an extreme comparison, but it is the truth and I feel it brings things into perspective.

Wealth Indicator Variables

If you search for the term “Wealth Indicator Variable”, you will find documentation which attempts to asses the overall wealth of a household. What might be surprising to some people is that the criteria for assessing wealth includes what could be seen as being the most basic of household items, such as a refrigerator, radio, television, oven and so on. Why, a house or dwelling having walls is even a criterion. You can read more about “Wealth Indicator Variables” here and here.

The Christian Prosperity Message

It is important for Christians to read each verse of the Bible in the context in which it was originally written. For instance, when we read the Old Testament, we need to bear in mind that the Messiah had not yet come. Therefore, some of the things that we read might no longer be relevant to us. For instance, those verses threatening condemnation are not for us who are in Christ (see Romans 8:1-2).

There are certain rituals, such as tithing, which were relevant to those who were under the law, that is, the Jews. But we are no longer under the law but under grace (Romans 6:15). Therefore, the tithe is no longer required from the New Testament believer. Now, we are to give as we purpose in our heart according to love – not as something that is required of us (see 2 Cor. 9:7).

The promises of prosperity in the Bible were typically written to those people whom we would consider to be “working class” in modern terms. These were typically farmers, fisherman and the like, who depended upon a harvest of crops or a good catch of fish in order to survive and to look after their families. Therefore, when the Bible says something like your barns will be filled with plenty (Proverbs 3:10) – it literally meant that a person would be blessed with a good harvest.

I remember reading in a book by Kenneth E. Hagin entitled Biblical Keys to Financial Prosperity in which he addresses this point of the meaning of “rich” in the Bible. Hagin says that it means a “full supply”. That does not mean that God will make us all millionaires - it simply means that God will meet all of our needs – which is what Philippians 4:19 promises. But nowhere in the Bible are we promised specific things, such as designer clothes or sports cars. The Bible does not promise a celebrity lifestyle when it says that we shall be made rich (see 2 Cor. 8:9)

Prosperity preachers have manipulated verses on abundance and provision to mean all sorts of things in a modern context, such as having a full bank account and so forth. I have heard prosperity preachers say things like, “God hates average”. Have you noticed that the Christian prosperity message is preached mostly by those people who live in prosperous nations?

If a person living in a prosperous nation believes that the quality of his life is average – he could respond to prosperity teaching by believing that God will make him rich in the western world’s interpretation of the word – which totally different to the world as a whole and the Bible’s interpretation of the word. This could lead to frustrated Christians seeking a celebrity lifestyle, believing that they are not rich, when in fact, they are.