The Design of Prosperity

Sunrise over Lundy, North of Dundee, Scotland.
Photography courtesy of Ben Bremner, https://www.facebook.com/groups/scotlandsscenery/permalink/5469038433115485/

In the day of prosperity be happy,
But in the day of adversity consider⁠—
God has made the one as well as the other
So that man will not discover anything that will be after him.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 (NASB)

Throughout my life I have experienced both good and bad times; prosperous times and times of want. As I write this I remember a time when I counted slices of bread with great care, and the day my home was burgled and all my groceries stolen leaving me with empty cupboards. But that incident was used by God to guide me to a foodbank in a church, and into a new fellowship and a time of great blessing in my life. I went from worldly poverty into spiritual prosperity.

As I use the word “prosperity” I want it to be crystal clear what is meant by this word in the God’s Word. It comes from the Hebrew word “Tob” with many positive descriptions such as, pleasing, good, beneficial, better, happiness, etc. Indeed there are 86 words/phrases referring to proserity, but only one of them refers to riches.

As believers in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour and children of God our Father, let us not be deceived by the teaching of some who say that constant prosperity is our Christian birth right. These folk find today’s verse hard to swallow. Our Heavenly Father seeks the best for His children, both good and bad – prosperity and adversity.

“God has balanced prosperity and adversity against each other; and were it not so, how many would put the former in the place of God himself!”

Adam Clarke Commentary

Dear Reader, be encouraged in your circumstances, both good and bad. Your Father God has ordained to allow both to help you grow and prosper in His care. Be thankful in all things as Paul was:

“I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:12-13 (NASB)

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