Prosperity

Coral Ridge Ministries

Prosperity

Proverbs 3:9–10

September 24, 2023

“Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.”
— Proverbs 3:9–10

God offers us blessings in many different forms. He blesses us with peace, joy, love of family and friends, emotional stability, and a host of other things. But God also promises to provide for all our material needs “out of His riches in glory.” We don’t provide for ourselves from our paychecks, our abilities to make money, or our bank accounts; rather, God takes care of our needs from His riches in glory.

Have you (excuse the pun) banked on this promise? So many people worry about paying their bills, but God has promised to make ends meet for us. Yet because they lack faith, many people hold on tightly to what God gives them, and as a result, they rob God of their tithes and offerings. They don’t honor the Lord with their substance by giving as God has instructed. Instead, they withhold from Him the “firstfruits” of their income. Therefore, God withholds His blessing from them. Hear what God says through His prophet Haggai to the ancient Israelites who neglected to tithe: “You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it” (Haggai 1:6, NIV).

God doesn’t want us to tithe so He can have our money. He has all He needs. But He wants us to honor Him in this area of our lives. When we give tithes and offerings to God, we exhibit recognition that the Lord has given us everything we have. We give to Him because we’re grateful for all His blessings. Most of all, we give because He has commanded us to do so. We submit ourselves to His will by giving to Him first.

God promises to bless those who give faithfully (see Malachi 3:10) and invites us to test Him in this. If you haven’t already, give a tithe of your income, even if you believe you can’t afford it. As you obey Him by tithing, God will pour out His blessings upon you.

QUOTE:
“Religion begat prosperity …”
— Rev. Cotton Mather

The Quest for Life

September 30, 2023

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” — Mark 8:35 When, at the end of your life on earth, you look back over your life, what do you hope to have accomplished or experienced? I think we would all like to “go for the gusto,” pursuing life with a capital “L”. But many pursue this goal in the wrong way. Sadly, even many Christians seek life with a capital “L” in a way that will prevent them from ever attaining it. People miss out on abundant life because it is a paradox. The way we truly gain life runs 180 degrees counter to the way we think we gain life. Jesus tells us, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Yet most people frantically do all within their power to save their lives by heaping upon themselves all manner of comforts, pleasures, delights, and securities, not realizing that everything they do destroys the very thing they want to save. As they attempt to gain life, they lose it. Jesus’ words are difficult. Many people read them, shrug them off, and go on their way, hoping that somehow those words don’t apply to them. For many, those words seem beyond understanding. But let me make it clear: If we focus all our attention and energies upon our material well-being, upon our lives in this world, then we shall lose that higher, greater, and more abundant life that we can have in Christ. Only when we release our lives to Christ, allowing Him to do whatever He wishes through us, do we gain life and gain it abundantly. Live for Jesus every day, including today, and you’ll experience life with a capital “L”. QUOTE: “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in;’ aim at earth and you will get neither.” — C. S. Lewis

Possibilities Unlimited

September 29, 2023

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. —Philippians 4:13 What would you try if you knew you could not fail? Would you climb a mountain? learn to fly an airplane? share the gospel with your family? The Scripture promises us that we can do “all things.” Have you claimed that promise? A person who professes to believe he or she “can do all things through Christ” and does not exercise that belief is like a miser who has a hundred million dollars in the bank but goes hungry day after day. For many of us, our belief is more like this: “I can do a few things through Christ, who gives me a little help.” Why do we sometimes believe that we can do only “a few things”? We believe this because we listen to the lies Satan speaks through his voice of discouragement. We believe this because we allow persecution to stop the Lord’s work. But if we want God to use us, we have to bank on that verse. Those who have turned the world upside down—Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, and William Carey—believed God could do mighty things through them. They made this verse their life verse, and it transformed them. And even though the apostle Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and left for dead, he attempted great things for God because he expected great things from God. He lived by the verse he had penned—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If you let the truth of this verse permeate your thinking, it can transform your life! We achieve only a fraction of what we could because we don’t take God at His Word. Are your expectations too low? Do you dream big dreams but never act on them? Then ask God to plant this promise deep in your soul and help you live in His power! QUOTE: Man, with God’s help and personal dedication, is capable of anything he can dream. —CONRAD HILTON

John Milton

September 28, 2023

“… to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever …” — Revelation 1:6 How blessed we’d be if we could give ourselves over, body and soul, to the glorification of our Savior Jesus Christ. John Milton, England’s most profound poet, did precisely this. He was a man molded by the Scriptures, and many consider Milton one of the highest examples of Puritanism. Though he lived much of his life in blindness, God granted him the vision to see things in the vast universe that lie beyond what the rest of humanity can see. John Milton saw the power of sin that, left unchecked, brings death. He saw the reality of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam. His masterpieces, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, involve two principal characters: the first Adam, by whose disobedience all of humankind plunged into sin; and the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, the beginning of the new creation. Milton’s epic poems describe the tremendous power and deception of sin that had come into this world, wreaking havoc and misery upon the earth. They also contain another reality—Jesus Christ, who gave thirty-three years of perfect obedience to God’s commands, who regained the kingdom for those of us who trust in Him. Milton was a poet of the invisible. He splashed on a vast canvas the history of the world from eternity to eternity, painting with his pen the greatest panorama of all time. He saw things that no one had ever seen before. And he has shared that vision with others, opening the eyes of millions. Milton believed that humankind has a high calling—to glorify the living Christ—and he fulfilled this calling in all he wrote. May we all have that same vision to be a blessing to God, to open the eyes of others by glorifying Jesus Christ in all we do. QUOTE: “Beyond compare the Son of God was seen, Most glorious; in him all his Father shone, Substantially expressed, and in his face, Divine compassion visibly appeared, Love without end, and without measure grace.” — John Milton