Saturday July 29th, 2023
« Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us »
12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing,
15 To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Those whom the Lord refers to as the “flourishing” are those who have the capacity to lend to nations.
They are the kind of people that nations can humbly go to in order to explain their needs, anticipating that they will receive something impactful from them.
The first thing you need in order to flourish is divine favor. In Romans 9:15-16NLT, God said:
« …For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose” »
So it is God who decides to show mercy.
We can neither choose it nor work for it.
In other words, struggling for wealth does not necessarily lead to prosperity.
This is why an African proverb says, “It is not the lack of food that stops a cat from being as big as the dog.”
After God has shown you favor, the next thing you need in order to flourish is hard work.
Lazy people don’t work hard, so they don’t flourish. In John 5:17b GNT, Jesus Christ said:
« “My Father is always working, and I too must work ” »
God is a hard worker, so it would not be in His character to cause a lazy fellow to flourish.
In Proverbs 13:4aNLT, the Bible says:
« Lazy people want much but get little »
In my lifetime, I have seen a lot of people who want to flourish without working hard.
They remain poor, because God’s word cannot be broken.
His word says in Proverbs 22:29NLT
« Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people »
If you don’t want to work hard, then there is no way God can cause you to flourish.
When God wants to bless someone, He opens doors to him or her.
However, if He opens a door for you, He won’t push you through it; you will have to do what it takes to go through it yourself.
For you to flourish, beyond working hard, you must work right.
Working hard is not as important as working right, otherwise all laborers would be the richest people in the world.
Peter and some other disciples fished all night but they caught nothing because they were fishing in the wrong place (John 21:3-6).
You can only know which way to cast your net if you have surrendered the boat of your life to the Master.
Those whose hearts are sold out to Jesus never lack direction.
They always have net-breaking catches because Jesus tells them which direction to cast their nets. Is it so with you?
Prayer point: Father, I am willing to work hard and work right; please bless me today.
Author: Bishop Enoch. A. Adeboye.
Edited by Naomie
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