Prejudice against the wealthy is a very real disease, and it traps people in poverty.

We easily know a prejudice and discrimination against the poor, but how often do we speak of discrimination against the rich.

It is there and well and alive on planet earth.

The thing with prejudice is it stems from a heart of judgment. And no good thing comes from judgment.

And there are PLENTY of judgments against the wealthy.

I’ve had some myself over the years, but have been doggedly working to rid them from my psyche, for a judgment given is a judgment that comes back. And judgment against the very things I’d like results in nothing whatsoever.

In the Bible (James 1:6-8) we are told to believe without doubting for the double-minded person will receive nothing.

Nothing comes of double-mindedness.

In regards to wealth it shows up this way:

“I need more money to live, I don’t have enough, all the wealthy people have it, tsk, tsk, tsk.”

Fact is, no one keeps wealth from us except us. And when we judge the wealthy we are declaring that to have money is bad and wrong.

Sooo… why would money want to come hang out with you?

It is a divided heart and mind. The mouth is asking for the very thing that the heart is cursing.

The mouth says, “Please God may I…” while the heart is condemning, “look at that person that has… tsk-tsk-tsk”

Logically speaking, how does that work?

It doesn’t.

All judgments work in this way, they set us up for despairing over the very things we want but do not have but hate about everyone else having.

And nothing will change, till we let go the judgments, change our minds about the way the world works, let the bitterness that always underlies judgments go.

Without this change, judgments against the wealthy secures our poverty.

Plain and simple,

And as horrifying as that.

It is easy when we have been hurt and wounded and the victims of injustice to carry those things close to us as a badge of sorts, an honor of poverty of sorts.

The Israelites when they were taken to the Promised Land, blew it. They had no faith, took no courage and ended up wandering the desert for forty years until that generation had died.

In the book of Psalms 106:24 we find this sentence, “They despised the pleasant land.”

And this led to their death. Literally.

It is the same with us. When we despise the wealthy or the powerful or the bosses, the government…. whatever the sneer that comes from our spirits, it will not go well with us.

A few years ago I personified money to see what I believed of it more clearly. This is some of what I found:

“Money is dirty”

“Money is too heavy for me”

“Money doesn’t like me”

I found that I was the cause of my money difficulties. I was driving money away with my attitude about it, my belief systems and paradigms.

They had to change. I had to change.

If this was a friend or a relative that I was thinking and believing and speaking these things of, would that friend want to come near me. Intrinsically speaking the emotional messages I’d be giving would be off-setting and that friend would not feel comfortable in my presence, and would stay farther and farther away.

Judgments that secure our poverty.

Prejudice against the wealthy condemns us to less and less and less.

And we respond with more hate, more prejudice, more judgment, and we get less and less, and we add on more judgment and prejudice, and we get less and less…

Despairing over what is wrong while drowning in our own vomit.

To set this right:

Confess that you have held onto poverty like a badge of honor,

Confess that you have despised those with money,

Confess that you have rejected the pleasant land,

And finally, begin to celebrate.

Celebrate that raise your friend received.

Celebrate the new care someone was able to buy.

Celebrate the promotion that so-and-so got.

And lastly, honor.

Honor is about looking every individual in the eye and declaring them worthy of a smile and a moment or more of your attention just because they are human just like you, simply because they have been created by God just like you.

Honor must go to everyone: the woman on the street, the peasant in the village, the children at the gathering, the elderly on their mats and in their homes, the men and women in their positions of influence, the politicians and the clergy.

Honor, and you will receive honor. Refuse to honor, and we will get that also, no honor.

Honor the poor and the wealthy, the sick and the healthy, the lame and the strong…

Honor everyone, and then, and only then, will it go well with you