Therefore we see that upon the rich God lays various crosses and trials, diseases and afflictions; not only because they have deserved such things by their sins, but because God desires to guard them against future sins, and thus keep them in His fear. They would otherwise, were it not for trials, de crease in prayer, faith and zeal for the Word of God, from day to day, and finally neglect them altogether.
The true, highest and best blessing; however, by which we can and should discern the goodness of God, is not temporal prosperity, but the ever lasting blessing, that God has called us to His Gospel, in which we hear Him and learn how He, on account of His Son, desires to be merciful to us, to forgive our sins and to save us eternally; besides to defend us graciously here on earth from the tyranny of the devil and of the world. Whoever rightly considers this blessing, even if he have lack of temporal blessings, so that he is poor, sick, despised, miserable and burdened with all manner of adversity, still regards all these things as insignificant; for he sees that he always gains more than he has lost. If he has no money nor property, he still knows that he is called unto everlasting life and that this is assured unto him in Baptism and the Word. (Luther’s House Postil, Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity, Volume 3, p. 648)