Would GOD be against worldly success, prosperity, intellectualism, power, etc?

Question

I mean, I'm just not sure how to answer this. A rich man has a hard time entering heaven, bla bla bla. I mean, to work hard in school, work, develop brains/intellectualism/wiseness, get money, buy nice clothes for yourself, do your hair up, h ave a blast, party, and just enjoy this life as much as possible,...and even if you're successful worldly,..is God AGAINST that?

Does he want us to be humble, poor, meek, non-powerful, non-intellectual...non-worldly....stay at home in our small town and never experience anything type of people?

I mean, what's the deal?

Answer 1

Well, as many people have pointed out, God does not say whether wordly success is good or bad. There's nothing God specifically says that is against it, even against the rich. People forget that the verse that talks about it being pretty much impossible for the rich to enter heaven IMMEDIATELY follows by saying that with God, ALL things are possible. SO the rich can enter heaven. Just do not LOVE the money.
In fact we are not to love money, family or anything else so much that we do not do what God says. The LOVE of worldly success is the problem and the overwhelming pursuit of that is evidence of the love of the world. And all that is in the world, as previously pointed out, is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the world is passing away.
Now, really, a 100% (or close to it) faithful person (I'd generously give myself 15%, and that might be a real overstatement, so I'm not saying I do this) would just do the work God requires (to believe on the One He has sent) and that would be enough. This belief is shown in the fruits of the spirit such as patience, love, etc.
The only things I can recall without a full-out Bible search are these: You must work, first of all. The Bible is very clear on this. Therefore you will seek to work (honestly) if you believe. Not be a workaholic, and not necessarily be employed (you can't force people to hire you), but you will have that spirit to work. The second thing is that God will provide all the worldly success you need. Jesus said that not a sparrow falls without God (It was without God's knowledge, or purpose, or something along those lines). And God values his children much more than these. Thus, in my belief, any worry about such wordly success, stems from a lack of faith.
I think that's why, except to relate the love of it to sin, the New Testament speaks so little of wordly success. We don't need to know exactly how to attain it. God will give us what we need, whether or not it looks like success to the world. Having recently been alerted that I will be let go from my job, I'm going through some of this stuff to, especially with wordly people I know trying to get me to think about how I am going to make myself a success (In fact I got here by google-searching that word and what the Bible says about it).
I hope this helps, and God bless you.