So is there a principle that God will prosper His people if
they obey His commandments? The good
news is, yes. It is the same principle
Jesus laid down in the passage from Matthew 6, “Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” The less exciting news is two-fold. We fail to keep His commandments and our
definition of prosperity may be at variance with God’s. He promises that they will have all they need
and then some, they will have to get rid of the old store to make room for the
new stores, but He doesn’t promise prosperity as most define it in 21st
century America or the west in general. The
greatest promise in that package in the first part of this reading is the
promise of presence. Until that is our
chief delight we should take no pleasure in prosperity.
The good soil is that
which is not overcome by the cares and desires of the world. It is prepared not for the fruitbearing of
worldliness but of the kingdom of God.
All that keeps our hearts from rejoicing in Him alone, all the desires
for glory or honor or power, have to be removed before we can see true
fruitfulness. I don’t know how you’re
doing with that but I see in my life that there is more work to be done than I
will likely have time to do. The good
news is that if we begin to pray that God will reveal and remove those barriers
to fruitfulness we will see more positive movement in preparing the soil of our
hearts. Some of the work we do is
spiritual discipline but some is prayer, actively desiring that change and
asking Him to do the work we seem unable to do ourselves. So long as we are passively pursuing
righteousness we are truly not pursuing it at all.
Paul urges prayer for kings and others in authority that “we
may lead a peaceful and quiet life.”
That is a wonderful prayer as it seeks to overcome those things that are
the cares of the world. When we do not
have peace in the world (and the reality is there is never peace in the world),
we concern ourselves with the things of the world. It seems that in our world today we concern
ourselves with too many things and our causes sometimes become smaller and
smaller. There are so many affinity
groups out there, so many protesting this, that or the other thing, that we are
assaulted constantly with concerns. The
Christian needs to be careful not to allow him or herself to be carried away
with the things of earth rather than the things of God. How do you spend your time on the internet,
politics, frivolity, or otherwise?
Perhaps your life, like mine, needs a bit of weeding.
The goodly land we see,
with peace and plenty blessed:
a land of sacred liberty
and endless rest;
there milk and honey flow,
and oil and wine abound,
and trees of life for ever grow,
with mercy crowned.
with peace and plenty blessed:
a land of sacred liberty
and endless rest;
there milk and honey flow,
and oil and wine abound,
and trees of life for ever grow,
with mercy crowned.
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