What Does God Promise, Really?

This week's TIME magazine has a cover story on "Does God Want Us to Be Rich?" and Al Mohler responded to the story with some comments on his blog. Most of the Christians I know (including myself of course) would probably say no to the Prosperity Theology if we were asked what we think, but a closer examination of our daily inner thoughts and activities would likely reveal that we are actually not that far from believing in it, or its many derivatives. Our physical, emotional, and psychological needs are so real in our daily lives that we tend to be driven by them, to such a degree that we can lead ourselves into believing in a distorted gospel in which God wants and promises to meet our every need. Our obvious need is money, lots of it. Others are health, jobs, family, and so on...

Here I'd like to make a list of some additional questions we sometimes find ourselves asking:
1. Does God want us to be healthy?
2. Does God want us to have a good or high paying job?
3. Does God want us to have a boyfriend or girlfriend?
4. Does God want us to marry a physically attractive or compatible spouse?
5. Does God want us to attend the best college?
6. Does God want us to have a good and healthy family?
7. Does God want us to be at a good church?
8. Does God want us to be stress free and happy?
9. Does God want us to have good sex in a marriage?

What does God really promise? Does John 10:10 include all these things? We all know that God promises Himself, in His Son. But what good is having God Himself but without those nine things listed above? When we're in pain, we often don't need God, we need to be delivered from our pain, we need good health. When we're single and lonely, we naturally think we need a mate, a good-looking one, not God whom we can't even see. And God, being loving as He is, should, we would think, be happy and willing to give us what we need!?

It's hard not to let our immediate needs define us and shape our image and understanding of God, and this is why we, as broken sinful humans, constantly need God's infinite mercy in opening our eyes to His greater glory and overwhelming us with it. And His glory is seen in His Son, in whom we all supposedly need to rest and be completely satisfied. Lord have mercy, lots of it.