HOW THE WORLD BENEFITS FROM POVERTY

The Bible clearly states that both poverty and riches come from God. (1Samuel 2:7), and also says that God is good all the time (Mark 10:18). It is therefore out of His infinite goodness and wisdom that He makes some people poor and others rich.

It has been explained earlier that nothing can happen in this world which God is not aware of and has not given approval of, no matter where it originates from. If the devil puts it into someone’s mind to go and steal in order to become rich, the person uses the free-will which God has given him to decide to accept the devil’s advise and go to steal, or reject it. If he accepts it and carries out that sinful act, it is because God has permitted it to happen. If He does not permit it, He knows how to stop it from happening and there are many ways He can do this. For example, God can cause the robber’s child to suddenly fall very sick, and force him to rush his child to the hospital, instead of going out to steal. He can also cause the robber’s car to break down on the way to the robbery or allow him to be caught as he tries to commence the robbery.

The same thing applies to wealth coming from any of the four sources of wealth.  None of them can succeed if God does not give final approval to any effort made in any of the directions to achieve success with such plans.

Whichever way a person goes to achieve wealth, Gods justice stands to judge him on the person’s last day on earth. The verdict of heaven, hell, or purgatory awaits him in accordance with what he has done during his life on earth.

In the same way, God allows some people to be poor, out of His  wisdom and goodness. If He had made everyone rich, and nobody to be poor, a lot of losses would have been sustained:

SOME OF SUCH LOSSES

1.       If God had made everybody rich and nobody poor, the rich would not find any poor person to practice charity on. The loss to be sustained here is that the reward and blessings from God for giving help to the poor and needy would be lost.

          The Bible states that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and reveals that no sin shall go unpunished , but encourages by also revealing that acts of love or charity covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8)     

          This means that through our acts of charity, the temporal punishment which awaits our sins are covered up and pardoned or deleted from our Book of Life (Revelation 13:8)       or book of Records in heaven, which will be opened on our day of judgment.

          The consequence is that God’s punishment waiting for us for the sins we are always committing, remains unmitigated, and  we suffer it in full. This is a very big loss.

2.       If there were no poor people, those who would have been in this group would stand to lose the blessings that would have been poured on them by God for the thanksgiving and glory they would have given to God for the favour they received from the rich. Here God Himself would lose the glory the poor would have given Him; and this is one precious gift mankind can give to God, and which He desires and demands from us:- GIVING GLORY TO GOD.

3.       A good measure of Happiness (which is the ultimate goal in life) would have been lost to both the rich and the poor if poverty did not exist and if God had made everyone rich.

It is common knowledge that Happiness is the greatest Treasure. It is bigger and more desirable than silver, gold and diamond. All the struggles of man in this life is to be happy. Having discovered that money is the route or channel to achieve it, everyone appears to be going after money. It is with money that a person is able to acquire those things he needs to make himself happy and enjoy life. So HAPPINESS and NOT MONEY is the ultimate goal. And this is what God has reserved as the Great Reward for those who succeed in going to Heaven. These are those who do His will and obey His commandments while here on earth. We all struggle and suffer our bodies to end up in heaven because here we are assured of everlasting HAPINESS.

So, any bit of happiness in this life is a treasure to be highly valued.

We all know that charitable acts bring happiness to both the giver and the receiver. This happiness would be lost both to the rich that gives and the poor that would have received, if there were no poor persons to be given. Although a rich person can give to another rich person, but that would be like ‘carrying coal to Newcastle’. God is more pleased when the rich give to the suffering poor, than when the rich give to a fellow contented rich person.

4)       Another Loss is that of the happiness a poor person experiences when transformed from his poverty to wealth. Also to be lost is the  thanksgiving and glory to God which he is bound to give.

 All to whom he is dear joins in his happiness and giving of praise, thanks and glory to God who responds by pouring out His blessings on all those who have done so.

 All the losses to be suffered had God made everyone rich in this world cannot be exhausted in this short article.

5.  Also to be lost if God had not made some people poor is the praise, thanksgiving and glory the rich give to God as they see all that poor people suffer. When rich people see how poor people are unable to cope with several of the basic necessities of life, and are unable to even take care of their health when they fall sick and even die as  consequence, they thank and praise God spontaneously and give him all the glory for not making them poor, to suffer all that they see the poor going through.

   Giving God praise, glory and thanksgiving are among the things that please Him   greatly, and to which He responds by pouring out His abundant blessings on the givers of such acts of praise, thanksgiving and glory to Him from whom all good things come. It gives Him pleasure to have cause to pour out His blessings on His creatures who do His will and make Him happy.

The rich live in beautiful mansions, move about in beautiful cars and jets, and eat very sumptuous meals, wear beautiful and expensive clothes and jewelleries, and gladden their hearts with delicious wines, while the poor cannot afford any of these. They, on the other hand suffer great deprivation of these and often end up dying in misery and want.

Seeing the big difference between them and the poor elicits spontaneous happiness and gratitude to God in the hearts of the rich for His not making them suffer all they see the poor going through.

The poor themselves, upon seeing how blessed the rich are, as compared with what they see themselves suffer, beseech God in prayers, frequent their churches, mosques, and other such places of worship to beg Him to bless them as He has blessed the rich. Such places of worship are consequently filled up with the poor who come to beg for riches to come their way, as well as the rich who come to thank and praise God for making them rich and not suffer like the poor, and who also  beg Him to increase their riches and general well being.

If on the other hand the Almighty had made everybody poor, suffering would have been taken as normal way of life as there would not be any rich persons for the poor to compare their lives with, and God would have lost (humanly speaking) all the praise, glory and thanksgiving from the rich . Yes, it is, speaking in human terms, because this God of ours is Almighty who is complete and sufficient unto Himself, and has never, and does not ever, and will not ever suffer any loss whatsoever.  What a drab world mankind would have found itself in, if it were so! How infinitely wise and amazing this God of ours truly is!