The Pilgrim

The Levites had no earthly inheritance because God Himself was their inheritance.  Followers of Christ have been told --

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a[special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9

The priests had no earthly inheritance, and neither do we of the new covenant priesthood.  We are both princes and priests.

And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory. [Born anew] into an inheritance which is imperishable [beyond the reach of change] and undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven for you. - Romans 8:17; 1 Peter 1:4

No one can appreciate a good meal like those who love the one who provided it.  No one can enjoy marriage like the one who knows its Architect and understands the greater reality that marriage foreshadows.

C.S. Lewis said, “Because we love something else more than this world, we love even this world better than those who know no other.” Or as he said in a letter to a woman who feared losing the memory of her husband, "When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased."

Pilgrims have not seen heaven, but they have read about it and dreamed about it.  The live with the exhilarating assurance that at this very moment their beloved Saviour is making it ready for them.

We have joy whenever this world reminds us of the next.  And we have comfort whenever it does not.  We have the promise of a new heaven and new earth, where the worst elements of this world - sorrow, pain, death and the tears they produce - will be gone forever. Yet we also know that the best elements of this world - love, joy, wonder, worship, and beauty - will not be gone but intensified and perfected in the remade world.

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next… It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither" - C.S. Lewis

Prosperity: Why?

In the context of financial giving --

And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.         2 Corinthians 9:8

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. - 2 Corinthians 9:10

Why?

We don't have to wonder --

Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. - 2 Corinthians 9:11

Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. - 2 Corinthians 8:13-14 

God wants us to be the conduit through which He meets the needs of others for whom He cared enough to die.

“God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized, uneducated, unmedicated, and unfed millions. The evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own. God has prospered them. And by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture (baptized by a doctrine of health, wealth, and prosperity) they have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, better (and more) meat, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun. They will object: Does not the Old Testament promise that God will prosper his people? Indeed! God increases our yield, so that by giving we can prove our yield is not our god. God does not prosper a man's business so that he can move from a Ford to a Cadillac. God prospers a business so that 17,000 unreached people can be reached with the gospel. He prospers the business so that 12 percent of the world's population can move a step back from the precipice of starvation.” ― John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

 It constitutes a lost opportunity to give to what could count for eternity.  Remember this verse --

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. - Matthew 7:12

If you and your children were hungry, what would you want prosperous Christians to do for you?

How different John Wesley sounded than today's prosperity preachers --

“Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose?”