Monday, April 14, 2014

THE WAY TO PROSPERITY



Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The greedy stir up conflict, but those who trust in the Lord will prosper.

Proverbs 28:25

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

WRITER’S NOTE: After today, I will be on a ship and heading back to the United States. I will try and post while away as much as possible but if for some reason connectivity does not allow it, I will be posting daily again once I arrive home.

Early on in my adult life, I remember nothing but struggles when it came to living.

It was a struggle to make ends meet financially and actually. I was overextending myself with the way I was living, traveling down the slippery slope of indebtedness.

It was a struggle at work as I served in the Navy trying to succeed and advance to higher paygrades.

It was a struggle to maintain my marital relationship which eventually crashed and burned in divorce.

Things weren’t very good for me then, that’s for sure. Maybe you can relate to the matter of struggling in your own life.

But then something happened, something that changed my life forever, something that carried me from my struggles into a life woven with successes and prosperity, something that showed me that I had been approaching life all wrong when it came to getting ahead.

What was that something?

It was simply, the Lord.

You see, when I allowed the Lord into my life, surrendering everything to Him and allowing Him to lead and guide me in all things, I learned the true way to prosperity. Before I was living for the world and its ways which only led me down the path of failure and disappointment and hardship. But when I trusted the Lord, He showed me the way to the treasures of heaven (Matthew 6:19-20) as I reaped the fruits of the Spirit in abundance (Galatians 5:22-23). I learned that the real value in life wasn’t in my possessions but rather in my Lord and His way, will, and word, when it wasn’t about me but rather all about Him.

That’s the message at the heart of today’s proverb from Proverbs, Chapter 28, verse 25. Here it is again:

The greedy stir up conflict, but those who trust in the Lord will prosper.
 
Trust in the Lord. It’s a key component of God’s wisdom guidance shared with us through Solomon, it’s a key component in the Christian life, period. We’re to not lean on ourselves or our own understanding, we’re not to exercise personal greediness also known as self centeredness, but we’re to rather place everything in the hands of the One who made us, the One who wants the best for us as we serve Him and others, the One who can do all things.

Yes, life brings us struggles but so often they are of our own doing. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and you will find yourself on the way to prosperity, not in the ways the world sees it but in the spiritual riches that only come when we are living in righteousness and the assurance of forgiveness, pardon, and salvation.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

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