Why Not Expect Prosperity?

image: google images

“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

 

I wrote my last post exactly six months ago today and I am grateful to return to it.

God is faithful.

It is now February and the year is flying as quick as I expected but recently, I had to sit with God to remind me what His vision for me was. It is often too easy to forget the amazing image of prosperity that faith gives us as we hope in the Lord.

I must admit, I have forgotten. Even now as I blog, I am waiting on God to put the pieces of that prosperous future image back in my mind.

Indeed, you must see it to believe it.

What is faith if we have nothing in mind of the evidence to be seen? Seeing in the spiritual must happen in order for hope to take root in our hearts as we wait on the Lord on His promise.

So I sat with God for a while today.

I asked Him to remind me again, what I am supposed to envision when I think of my future. In this exercise, it occurred to me that I had become accustomed to the rigid idea of numbering my days so much so that I stopped seeing what was ahead.

I think sometimes we are subconsciously easily crippled by the idea of unexpected disappointment or even tragedy that we relent on the vision of a future not too far from now. I recognized that misplacement of faith today. I wonder if you have been setting aside a hope for the future because you are afraid it may not happen or that it seems too far away.

Faith tells us to wait expectantly. Faith decrees that we pray without ceasing. Faith says to hope in the Lord. But enduring the present times and a heart of perseverance is no easy feat.

That is why we cannot shy away from coming to God as much times as it takes, conversing with God, and pleading that His Spirit continues to fill us up with the hope and expectancy that our faith deserves and that our future needs.

So why not expect prosperity tomorrow? And the day after that? and the day after that?

Why not seek God to reconstruct the future that He promised so we may yet hope for it as we walk toward it?

I pray for you as I pray for myself today. May the Lord of hope continue to fill your mind with the prosperous visions and words of goodness that you need to keep faith alive. I speak life onto the dead bones of our hope and joy in expectancy in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Tomorrow Is Unseen. Give Today Its Glory

today's glory

 “That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.”

Psalm 106:5

It is almost impossible to wake up on a Monday morning without making plans for the whole week! And for many, even the whole month! And others, a whole year is already mapped out!

An obsessed planner like me knows exactly what I mean when I say tomorrow begins today…But does it really?

Surely, planning is effective in attaining the goals we set before ourselves. But have we become so wrapped up in the plans of tomorrow that we rob today of its glory?

I often pray to God to allow me the glorious sight of His presence each day. I yearn to see God somehow someway as my day begins. And if I can’t see God, I long to hear Him, to feel Him as I take every step in the day. I mean how often do we go about the day hoping that God shows up by letting our own ambitions turn out successful?

This state of mind indeed transits into our worrisome habits.

Admittedly, certain circumstances will compel you to worry about tomorrow when today has only begun. We worry about the due dates of our upcoming bills. We worry about installment payment plans when the check is barely enough to pay our offering, feed our families, and dare to save a spare change for the unexpected.

We worry if we’ll ever have enough to truly live in comfort.

Friend, don’t you know that comfort is found when you give God praise? Don’t you know that peace of mind is granted when you keep your eyes on the most high God?

No one knows what tomorrow holds. We only have our ideas of what we hope it will bring.

So I urge you today to give today the praise it is due.

Praise God for the favor on your life to see a new day with new mercy. Praise God for the favor of health and well being. Praise God for the honor to bow at His feet at any given moment to lay your heaviest burdens down. Praise God that He is a friend like no other who is always near. Praise God that the tears of yesterday are now today’s testimony and today’s tests and trials are all testimonies in the making! These are all of today’s glory!

We ought not to wait till tomorrow, till that big break comes, till that miracle happens, till that bonus comes. Praise God today!

Praise God today because He lives and still sits on the throne. Praise God today for his enduring mercy. Praise God because HE is GOD!

May God fill our mouths, hearts, and mind with nothing but praise, today, tomorrow, and forever more in Jesus name. Amen.