Joel Osteen is noted for saying that “God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.”
Osteen and other modern prosperity teachers want people to think that God cares about them being financially successful and having their “best” life.
However, believers should stop and ask themselves: “What is success?” Does success mean prospering financially? Are successful people the ones who achieve fame and prominence in life?
When answering the question about whether God cares about success, we need to distinguish between the world’s definition and God’s definition of success. Only then can we understand what God values as success in the life of a believer.
Worldly Definition of Success
People define success differently based on various standards. However, the world relates success to having wealth, fame, and popularity. One of the definitions of success in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
