Sermon Illustrations

PRAYING FOR YOUR PROSPERITY

One day a man was walking with this pastor. He knew this pastor was living in horrible poverty in Ethiopia, and he made the mistake of showing a little bit of what he thought would be gracious sympathy. He told the Ethiopian pastor, brother, we pray for you in your poverty. This humble man turned to him and said, no, you don’t understand. We pray for you in your prosperity.

That took the man back, but the Ethiopian pastor explained, we pray for you Americans because it is much harder for you to live at the place God wants you to live in the midst of your prosperity, than it is for us in the midst of our poverty.

(From a sermon by Anthony Zibolski, Gideon; Man of Purpose, 6/14/2011)

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