Prosperity For the New Year

This year has been a time of difficult trials, but it’s also been a time where I’ve seen more of God’s miraculous power. One of the greatest lessons that God is revealing is how to pursue true prosperity. This is continuing to transform my way of thinking about where to make my greatest investments. For example, He is transforming our law office into a place of refuge and peace where people can meet Jesus while we walk them through their legal issues. We are constantly in awe as God gives our team opportunities to share His gift of salvation and implement the mission of discipleship.

2024 has been one of the toughest—but most amazing—experiences of my life!

We all desire material prosperity, right? So this year, when my life was upended and I was considering whether God was calling me away from the practice of law, I asked God to show me:

“What is “prosperity” according to Your Word?”

What God showed me was that His definition of “prosperity” had been foreign to me. You see, I had bought into the world’s definition of prosperity; that is, that the most valuable prosperity is reflected in material things, success, reputation, or even having family and friends. But, that just shows how powerfully and completely our enemies have infiltrated Christian thinking. You see, we cannot define God’s truth according to the standard of the world culture. Rather, we must know His ways according to His Word. Otherwise, we live in a false reality and we miss the best blessings. While in my MIND I knew that prosperity involved doing God’s work, God has revealed where my HEART actually was. I was mostly engaged in gathering this world’s goods, improving myself for success, having powerful friends and an admired family, and building a great business, etc. We do what we LOVE—don’t we?!?

But if our primary pursuit of prosperity is in the physical realm, we will miss out on the richest investments. 

To keep from missing out, our thoughts need to be more like God’s thoughts. So to begin, God was showing me that I needed to learn to discern between “physical prosperity” and “spiritual prosperity.” God then challenged me to honestly evaluate the proportion of time and effort spent on each kind of prosperity and determine if my investment goals were upside down. My conclusion is that for many years of my Christian life, my enemies had deceived me about the REAL prosperity God offers to each of us. It’s no wonder my accumulation of worldly goods never felt like enough and I could never seem to shake the fear of disaster over losing what I have.

But this year, on the brink of great disaster, I was given the opportunity to experience the possibility of losing everything…and it caused me to ask:

“Are the physical resources I’ve attained—which could ALL be lost tomorrow—REALLY the kind of prosperity I want to spend my life pursuing?” 

Is God’s brand of prosperity so fragile that it could be wiped out by a war, a business coup, a financial disaster, or a death? My friend, the Bible makes it clear that God’s brand of prosperity is found in what HE gives us and His gifts are the only ones we won’t EVER lose! The first and greatest asset in our own spiritual portfolio is God’s priceless gift of salvation. 

When we are born again, we possess God’s irrevocable gift of eternal life. The same way that our physical life enables us to enjoy physical prosperity; our spiritual life enables us to enjoy remarkable spiritual prosperity. But to enjoy spiritual prosperity we need to be intentional about our spiritual growth. Spiritual prosperity can be enjoyed now AND in the life to come! Physical prosperity is wiped out for us—when our body dies. 

Jesus taught us the KEY to spiritual prosperity:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‬‬

Where is YOUR heart? 

Jesus died with no possessions. He was branded a criminal and buried in a borrowed grave; yet—He was the richest person who ever lived. He collected eternal treasure—the souls of people. His work on this earth is still paying eternal dividends. I am one of them and, so are you. 

My friend, have you been born again and become the everlasting treasure of Jesus? 

If you are, then you have the great opportunity to become God’s treasure hunter! The greatest treasure we can gather is to bring others into the eternal family of God. I don’t want to see anyone in hell, do you? God’s born again followers are His posterity. And, because of what He did for us on this earth, we ALSO have the opportunity to gather the same eternal treasures! God gave us sixty-six books of instruction about how to attain spiritual prosperity. Jesus even gave us the cliff notes: 

“Love God and love others as you love yourself.” Matthew 22:38-39

So what is God’s plan for YOUR spiritual prosperity for the New Year? How will you begin investing in order to attain it? Consider your plans for this day. Will the majority of your day be spent on the singular goal—slogging away working for things you can never take with you? How do we make a living concurrently while investing eternally? Ah, my friend, please don’t miss out! God has made a way to make your life eternally prosperous WHILE He also takes care of your physical needs. In the last two devotionals before the New Year we are going to discuss God’s plan for spiritual prosperity as set forth in His Word. 

God has a simple investment plan for us to have eternal benefits for our spiritual portfolio: Do you know the plan? 

*A similar devotional series was written earlier this year as I was going through the toughest part of this crisis and the Lord laid it on my heart to rewrite it on the backside. It’s been such a valuable learning experience; God wanted me to hear it again!