LORD, WHY DON’T YOU MAKE ME RICH?

I suppose more than a few Christians have prayed some version of this:

“Lord, You know I could handle a little more money.”

Maybe a lot more.

We can even convince ourselves that we would use it wisely. We would help people. Give generously. Pay everything off. Never worry about another bill.

So why doesn’t God just make us rich?

Maybe sometimes the answer is simpler than we think:

“Because I know what riches would do to you.”

That may sound harsh, but Scripture gives us reason to think about it.

One of the most interesting prayers in the Bible says:

“Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’” (Proverbs 30:8–9).

Think about that.

He was not asking God to make him wealthy.

He was asking God to give him enough.

Why?

Because he understood something about the human heart. Having too little can tempt us, but having too much can tempt us too.

When everything is going well, the bank account is full, the bills are paid, and we can buy whatever we want, it becomes very easy to forget how much we need God.

Paul gave a similar warning:

“But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires” (1 Timothy 6:9).

Notice that Paul did not say every person who has money is evil.

The warning is about wanting to get rich—making wealth the goal.

Then Paul says:

“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

Money is not the problem.

The heart is.

A person can have very little money and still love it. Another person can have a great deal and use it faithfully.

The question is not simply, “How much do I have?”

The question is, “What has my heart?”

Jesus said:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

That ought to make all of us stop and think.

Maybe God knows that if He gave me everything I wanted, eventually I would stop wanting Him.

Maybe He knows that the thing I am asking Him to give me would slowly become the thing I trusted instead of Him.

Maybe the unanswered prayer for more money is not God withholding something good.

Maybe sometimes it is God protecting us from something we are not prepared to handle.

Paul learned something most of us struggle to learn.

Contentment.

He wrote that “godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment” (1 Timothy 6:6).

That turns our thinking upside down.

The world says gain means having more.

God says there is great gain in learning to be content with Him.

There is nothing wrong with working hard. There is nothing wrong with earning money, saving money, owning a home, enjoying what God has provided, or having enough to help someone else.

But wealth is a terrible god.

It promises security it cannot guarantee.

It promises happiness it cannot provide.

And eventually every dollar we have will belong to someone else.

So maybe instead of praying only,

“Lord, why don’t You make me rich?”

we might also pray,

“Lord, give me what You know I can handle, and do not let anything You give me take Your place in my heart.”

Maybe God is far more interested in making us faithful than making us wealthy.

And maybe learning to be content with what He has already provided is a greater blessing than getting everything we think we want.

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“What I write is not for everyone, but what I write is meant for someone.” – Dean Butler

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