Jeremiah 29

Jer 29:11:  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” ​

While God’s Spirit can use scripture however the Spirit sees fit, Christians today have used such verses to create a system of sorts where God has a clearly defined and set “plan” for each individual person to the point that their lives are set on predefined tracks and every event, the good and the horrible, along those tracks was planned out in eternity past by God. There are different variations of this line of thinking, but at the heart of this thinking is the notion that God has one specific plan for each of us, and we should earnestly study the Bible as we figure out that plan.  --A Deeper Story

This “Word of Faith” mess, that blessings are somehow related to the words and actions of the believer ​and not to the grace of God alone; is dangerous in that it becomes a faith of works to somehow “get something from God”. I submit that, for the less mature Christian, this is a dangerous doctrine--capable of heaping condemnation on the heads of those struggling in various areas of their lives. “I must not be spiritual enough,” they say to themselves. “I must have some sin in my life that is hindering God’s flow of blessings upon me.” How sad that so many of us are blinded to the realities of the Christian life by, most of the time, well-meaning men in the pulpit who themselves have been taken in by “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. God does promise that He knows the plans He has for us...to prosper us, not to harm us, and that He has a plan to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). But.. exactly where does it say that Christians are supposed to have economic security and that HIS prosperity should be equated with financial success?" --Lydia Goodman