Wealth: (Start Giving) (Start Saving) (Start Investing)
3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
What really is prosperity? In A Journey through Acts and Epistles, Volume 2, the footnote on this verse says:
“prosper: to be led in a good way or on a good path, to have a prosperous journey, to be well guided, to be successful…. Success in all matters would include material needs, health, peace of mind, joy in fellowship and other matters.”
In this book we are mainly interested in the area of material needs.
Dictionary.com defines prosperity as:
- a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respects; good fortune.
- prosperities, prosperous circumstances, characterized by financial success or good fortune.
Many see prosperity on a very short term basis — a raise at work, or an unexpected check in the mail, or a good deal on a car, or to catch the right sale at the supermarket. These things are wonderful but not what actually results in long term prosperity.
The Art of Manliness website had a great explanation of prosperity in its article, “The Paycheck Mentality vs. the Net Worth Mentality”:
“From the time we are old enough to understand, society conditions us to confuse income with wealth. We believe that doctors, CEOs, professional athletes, and movie actors are rich because they earn high incomes. We judge the economic success of our friends, relatives, and colleagues at work by how much money they earn. Six and seven- figure salaries are regarded as status symbols of wealth. Although there is a definite relationship between income and wealth, they are very separate and distinct economic measures. Income is how much money you earn in a given period of time. If you earn a million in a year and spend it all, you add nothing to your wealth. You’re just living lavishly. Those who focus only on net income as a measure of economic success are ignoring the most important measuring stick of financial independence. It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep.”
The whole article is well worth reading.
Some people that make lists say there are over 2,000 verses on financial prosperity in the Bible. It must be an important topic, yet how many of them do we know?
Now, these promises of prosperity are to those who seek after God—very important to remember.
Deuteronomy 8:18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Deuteronomy 28:2-8 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Leviticus 25:19-22 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
“Command the Blessing upon” is a rare phrase and is used here with prosperity.
Deuteronomy 28:11-13 And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
God will open to you His good treasure. God has many things stored up in abundance for His children. We have been told for many years that if we use too much, we will run out of land, water, oil, and all-natural resources. But it is not true. We should not be wasteful, but God is not up all night working to create more trees because we are running out of them. He has great storehouses or treasuries to draw from.
God promises us prosperity, and that is only natural as we are His offspring, His children. Why would our Father who owns the earth and the fullness thereof want His children to live in poverty? He doesn’t!!
Jeremiah 17:7-8 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
So these promises we are looking at are for those that trust in and that seek after God and His promises.
Searching the scriptures diligently for God’s promises is part of the Prosperous Life!
If you would like to learn more about this subject; this book is available in audio, paperback or a Kindle format on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Poverty-vs-Wealth-Fundamentals-Prosperity/dp/B073WZ6676
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