Why Poverty?
Updated: January 16, 2026
Make no mistake: the Bible declares poverty and lack to be bad things. God gets no pleasure in your poverty, and certainly no glory. Under the Old Covenant (aka, Old Testament, the Jewish experience before Jesus), poverty is clearly listed as a consequence of disobedience and indifference to the commands of God. That is, it is part of a curse. Tremendous material and spiritual benefits were promised to those who kept their covenant with God. This wasn’t just getting basic needs met. The Bible promised overflowing, way-more-than-enough abundance to the Old Testament faithful.
New Testament living (where we are in this present age) should be no less wonderful than it was in the Old Testament. Actually, it should be even more wonderful for us when we learn to live by faith in this area. More than any earthly father, your Heavenly Father is interested in your prosperity. You can trust that He is at least as good at gift giving as you are!
If you are experiencing poverty and lack today, take heart! Jesus paid a terrible price for our disobedience and indifference, ratifying a brand New Covenant (aka, New Testament) whereby everyone may experience the abundant provision of the Father. That’s right: even non-Jews can now claim God as their Father and Provider by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice. But just as ignorance, laziness, and disobedience can keep children from experiencing the good things provided by their earthly parents, so we can cut ourselves off from God the Father’s material blessing. In that sense, things haven’t changed since Creation. Thankfully, ignorance, laziness, and disobedience are curable! It is up to us to seek the truth on this matter.
No one who understands the Bible perspective accepts being poor. No, we resist it just as much as we resist everything else that the enemy tries to put on us. The enemy wants us to be poor so that we won’t be able to support God’s work in the earth.
Some say that God only blesses us spiritually, not materially. You don’t have to read much of the Bible to know that this is nonsense. Only those who have failed to appropriate God’s promises would say such a thing. They trust in their own efforts, but they don’t trust the many scriptures that promise actual, material and financial blessing in the here and now. Let such a person examine his own heart to see if maybe his actual God of Provision is… himself.
Does this mean that everyone who lives a godly life is “rich?” Imagine this: what if you had a bag that never ran out of money? You look inside and maybe see little, but somehow there is always enough to pay for the things you need and want! This is what Jesus offers us as believers and citizens of the Kingdom of God. His Kingdom always has more than enough for those who understand their citizenship and love God rather than money and “stuff.” We just don’t have to worry about provision anymore! Isn’t this good news? (See also Why Giving? and Why Tithe?)
(Deuteronomy 28:1-14, 1 John 3:1-2, Ephesians 2:19, Proverbs 22:7, Matthew 7:9-11, James 4:7, Luke 22:35, Luke 12:33, Proverbs 11:31, Mark 10:29-30, 2 Peter 1:3, Ephesians 1:18, Mark 11:24 KJV, James 4:3, Luke 4:18)