Abundance and Prosperity From the Heart

“¹⁰when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” and “⁹The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers,” — Deuteronomy 30:10 & 9 (ESV)

I know that I have captured the two verses above in reverse order. I do that as it is now in the cause and effect order. The LORD will make us prosperous and will provide abundance when we are obeying Him fully, not just in action, but with our hearts.

I wrote recently of the over abundance that God will provide when everything comes from the heart. The people gave for the building of the temple from their hearts and there was so much given that Moses had to tell them to stop giving. When we are going about our lives with Christ from our heart He will not only make sure there is more than enough for His work, but He will also provide abundance for you and me.

You see, it is not just about loving the LORD with all your heart. It is also about obeying His every command. Our pastor, Jared Patrick just did a message on bad days and what to do about it. One of the points in the sermon was that we may be obeying perfectly to God’s plans and commandments, yet the outcome was not what we expected to come. God does not always reveal to us the outcome, He may only reveal the work and our role is to obey. Our obedience is from the heart and not just on the surface of things. We have to fully believe and trust that God will use us as He needs and that we will be rewarded for the work, in the way that He sees fitting. So, as Jared pointed out in his sermon, what do we do on a bad day:

1. Remember who God is

2. Recall What God Has Promised

3. Trust What God Will Do

4. Stay Faithful Even When You Feel Empty

5. (this one is from me) Obey God From The Heart

I want to be clear, we do not do the work for some sort of reward. We do the work for the LORD and to spread His message to all around. But, we will be rewarded and that reward will be abundance and prosperity that we can only imagine today.

Where does your obeying come from? Are you doing things specifically to receive some sort of reward a, quid quo pro kind of thing? What if you were to just obey the LORD with all your heart and know that you will be rewarded in some way at some time in abundance and prosperity?

Truth in God’s Heart

God has a heart and as He made us in His own image, you and I do as well. There is a difference though. God only has truth in His heart and you and I, well, we don’t.

“²¹And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.’” – Genesis 8:21 (ESV)

See the verse above and the reference God makes to the heart of man, “man’s heart is evil from his youth”. So we are evil in our heart. We go against the LORD and man at any chance we can. We are not worthy of any mercy or grace from the LORD. It starts early on and carries through our entire life in this world.

But the LORD, He is full of truth and honesty. See the same verse above the LORD’s words, “I will never again curse the ground because of man”. Even as we are evil from early on, God is not and works around us and our evil for the good of the world.

But Trevor, how is it then that people and animals are destroyed if God will not destroy it? I hear you and all I have for that is that God is a righteous and just God. He will still issue justice where it is due. Although that is the thing, it is due and directed and not just as it was, complete. God did not indicate that He would not issue justice, only that He would not completely destroy it all because of the sins of the one.

And that is the difference in God and man. God is truth from His heart to His actions where man is not. God makes promises and keeps them, where man makes promises (until circumstances change) and then goes against the promise for what is for him. God is truth from before the beginning.

“¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God.” – John 1:1-2 (ESV)

“6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” – John 14:6a (ESV)

What is your view of truth in your heart? Are you of the view that you are truth inside and out? What if you looked at God as the only truth from the heart and embraced that we are born with the disposition of evil in our hearts?

But The New World is Promised

When and where, could we being seeing it already? I don’t think so, at least fully.

“Not ‘up there’ in a distant Heaven, but ‘down here’ on earth, in Jerusalem” – Randy Alcorn

The where, down here where we are. Remember that the New Earth will be resurrected and descend here where we are now. All that is known to us here in this world will be replaced with the New Earth. We will not “have to” go to find. The New Earth will be presented for us right here where we are now.

“²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” – Revelation 21:2 (ESV)

Now, when. Well, that would be at the conclusion of the final battle. This current Earth, full of sin and death and the curse since the fall of Adam, will be completely destroyed and the New Earth will come. It must happen as the New Earth cannot have any of it. The judgment of the LORD will be upon this earth to the point of full annihilation and replaced with the New Earth as was created in the beginning.

“¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” – Revelation 21:1 (ESV)

Now, are we seeing it already? I think we are. You see, Christ came to this world to prepare us for His second coming. This was promised in scripture and it came to pass. So the full promise of God has already begun. We have already been made privy to the plan of God, and some of that plan has already occurred. So, we can have confidence that the plan will continue and we will see it all fulfilled. We just don’t know the timeline.

“⁶So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ ⁷He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.’” – Acts 1:6-8 (ESV)

We have the plan, we know the where, and we know the when, we just don’t know the timeline. But we do know that where we are now is only temporary and that when the time comes, it will be forever.

“⁵And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” – Revelation 22:5 (ESV)

What are you thinking of the promise of a new world? Are you looking for it today in a specific location? What if you look instead at the plan and find the where, when, and see that it is promised and has already begun fulfillment?

The LORD Will Make You

Patience is a virtue as noted by William Langland in his poem “Piers Plowman”. And this is certainly true when following the LORD. The LORD says in His word that He will do or it will be given, but He does not indicate when. As with Abram and the LORD telling him to leave his home and that he would be made great.

“¹Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” – Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV)

The LORD told Abram to go and that at some point he would be made great. No mention of when, no mention of anything additional that was needed, just go and do. And so he did.

“⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” – Genesis 12:4 (ESV)

Notice even here the age of Abram at the time. He had lived a pretty full life, reaching the age of 75 (at least by today’s life expectancy). Yet, he obeyed the LORD and went. He trusted that what the LORD was telling him was indeed what He was going to do. He was not concerned with the timing of things, only that the LORD was going to do that which He promised.

Do we trust and obey as Abram did? I wonder every day if I really do. I think about my Bible Study and the learning of God’s Word and the impact that it has on my life. I wonder if I am doing all that I am supposed to do as I have not seen great and overt reward from the LORD to this point. I wonder if I ever will experience the reward the LORD promises. Then, I think about the promise.

The LORD has promised eternity and glory in heaven. I am not there yet. I will be. And when I get there, I will be rewarded with all that He has promised. He promised and He will deliver. The LORD will make me into what He has promised, I have to remember the promise and that everything is in His time and not my own. Patience is a virtue and with the LORD, I have to remember that patience and know that I may not receive right now, but I will be made by the LORD in His time.

What is your view of being made by God? Are you impatient with what you are to receive? What if you remembered the promise of the LORD and remained patient for His actions to make you?

Honor for Your Parents for the Promise

As I study God’s Word, it seems as though I am coming back to the same passages again and again. God has new things for me to learn as I do. Now I know that over a lifetime, there are many days and the odds of coming back to the same passages are really good, it is just that I have been doing a dive into God’s Word over the past number of years and I have really noticed the guidance through His Word. This morning I am led back to Ephesians as I study the word “honor”.

“‘²Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise),’³that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’” – Ephesians 6:2-3 (ESV)

Familiar passage indeed. Yet, I still learned something this morning. The parenthetical statement above, “this is the first commandment with a promise”. I had not thought of it from that perspective before. God not only gave us a commandment, but told us the outcome of keeping it. It will “go well”. God has told us that doing that which we are commanded to do will result in good things to come.

I know, well bring on the good things. It is simple, yet difficult at the same time. Saying that I honor my parents in public and even in private is one thing, but really putting it into practice is another thing all together. Honoring them is an action and not just words. I have to remember to show them that I honor them and not just tell them that I love them.

Recently, my family traveled and my mother went along with us. My mother is into her 70s and where she is relatively healthy, she is not able to keep up with us young kids (we are in our 50s, LOL) like she used to. At one point my wife and our boys went on a hike to see a site and mom and I were tagging along. We got about half way to the destination and I realized that my mother was likely not to make it. Where seeing the site would have been nice, I elected to turn back with my mother to wait on everyone to return. Mom was more important to me than seeing something that was not going anywhere. I honored her by being there with and for her.

Now, honoring our parents is not to be done for some reward. I did not think about the reward when I stayed with mom. I did not want something out of it. But thinking back to the time spent with her, I see that I may have received the reward. Things for me did “go well” as I was able to have some good private conversation with mom and connect with her away from the formal setting of most conversations. It was all, in the moment and was very real and lovely.

Our role with our parents is to honor them through our action. We are to demonstrate to them that they are indeed important and when it comes down to it, they were the first to love us and for that, they deserve our honor.

What is your approach to your parents? Are you seeing them as just another person in your life? What if you were to honor them for the position they hold or held in your life?