Page 26 - The Prosperous Way _ (APRIL 2024 v3)

THE PROSPEROUS WAY

of His covenant with Abraham as recorded in Genesis 12:2-3. In this
covenant, God promised that, through Abraham, all the nations of the
earth would be blessed.

“And I will make you into a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing;
….And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
(Genesis 12:2-3)

This covenant has been fulfilled in Jesus, as Galatians 3:8 tells us that
“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and
announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be
blessed through you.’” Therefore, as we take the message of salvation
and reconciliation with God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to
all peoples of the earth, we fulfil God’s promise that through Abraham’s
lineage all the earth is blessed. This is accomplished by giving to meet
the needs of our local church and supporting missionary work to
establish God's kingdom throughout the earth.

This is not of course to say that we should not also enjoy the fruit of our
work. Ecclesiastes 5:19 tells us that “when God gives a man wealth and
possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be
happy in his work, this is a gift from God.” In a similar vein, 1 Timothy
instructs those who are rich in this present age “not to be conceited and
not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly
provides all things for us to enjoy .” So, clearly God gives us wealth to
bless us. However, the point is that His blessing was never intended for
us only.
IN CONCLUSION

What then can we say in summary? Prosperity certainly means to make
good progress and to have good success in the things that we set our
hands to do. No doubt about it, God wants us to prosper and be
successful in this way. But it is also clear that, throughout the Bible, God
has also blessed His faithful servants with abundant wealth, and the
Bible is replete with references to material sufficiency being a gift from
God. We see this illustrated in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David,
Solomon, Jabez, Job and many more.

12