It is important that we realize from reading the Bible that God considers poverty to be a curse.  We find this to be true when we look at Job’s story. God was blessing him with health and abundance; however, it was when Satan intervened that God’s blessings were interrupted. Let’s read it.

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land” (Job 1:9-10).

When Job was under attack from the devil he encountered poverty, sickness and calamity. After Job survived the devil’s attack, everything was restored and he lived a long prosperous life of enjoying God’s blessing. A friend of mine is fond of saying that if you are not convinced that poverty is a curse, you should go on a trip to the poorest sections of India to see what it does to people. He notes that you will also be convinced of the close association of religion, poverty, sickness and death.

The first car that I ever owned had a problem with the transmission and it would leave a puddle of fluid under my car when it sat in the same location for a length of time. I got into the habit of always looking under my car to check for a leak before I drove it away. Sometimes the leak would be bad enough that it would leave a trail of fluid as I was driving away. Consequently, I developed the habit of always looking in my rear view mirror as I drove away to see if I was leaving a trail of fluid on the road. For many years after this I still maintained these habits expecting something to be wrong with my car, even though I had better vehicles that were mechanically sound and didn’t leak fluid at all.

Was I really supposed to live like this? As I pondered it, I concluded that this was an expression of the spirit of poverty that had attached itself to me. I asked the Lord to help me break free of it. It took some time, but I can say that I am free from it today. I now enjoy driving the vehicles God has given us without the nagging fear that something is wrong mechanically or will go wrong with them.