The Bible tells us that God will supply all our needs (Phil. 4:19). Because His resources are limitless, He is able to do that for everybody who comes to Him in faith.

Do we then have the right to expect that we will never be sick or hungry or in want? That's the teaching of some preachers today.

One speaker and author who promotes a health-and-wealth gospel has actually written: "The Word of God simply reveals that lack and poverty are not in line with God's will for the obedient . . . . God's will is prosperity."

According to that teaching, some of the great examples of faith portrayed in Hebrews 11, the Bible's Hall of Fame, must have been disobedient to God and His will. Verses 37 and 38 record that "they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented . . . . They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth."

Surely God is concerned for our total welfare, yet He knows best when to withhold and when to bestow His provisions. His ultimate concern is for our spiritual health. We must therefore trust Him and acknowledge that adversity sometimes may be God's means of promoting our spiritual prosperity.  — Vernon C. Grounds