Biblical Advice on Finding Prosperity
In today’s world, we want results now. On demand movies. On demand music. Fast food, overnight shipping (shoot, most places have same day delivery anymore), instant dopamine, instant gratification. We want viral growth that surges us from unknown to flourishing. The sad truth is that living prosperously doesn’t work that way. Nearly always quick wins lead to quick losses (just look at the curse of the lottery winner).
So, what do we do? We turn to Proverbs; a book filled with wisdom that’s just as applicable to life today.
“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5 NLT
Are you being diligent in your planning, or just busy?
Biblical Blueprint for Living Prosperously
Let’s break this down one concept at a time.
“Good planning” (some translations say diligent planning) means just that. Making plans, assessing situations, analyzing outcomes. This isn’t a “I’m going to open a business” and then slapping something together overnight. It’s strategic action carefully set in motion. As they say, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
“and hard work” means you have to do both. Create the good plan, but put in the effort to make it happen.
“lead to prosperity” good planning plus hard work means you’re setting yourself up for sustainable growth and long-term success… in other words living prosperously.
“hasty shortcuts” the world is rife with get-rich-quick or get-rich-easily schemes. Just look at the MLM scam industry – it’s over $300 billion large right now.
“lead to poverty” when you don’t want to put in the effort to plan or do, you’re going to find poverty. Not just financial ruin, but burnout, regret, missing out on a purpose driven life. Again, look at the MLM scam industry where 99% of those involved end up losing money.
If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you have to keep pushing hard. Sit back for a minute and suddenly things are heading downhill. If you’re working for someone else, you might be able to get away with it for a little longer, but the only way for upward momentum is to keep working hard and planning diligently.
Haste Leads to Waste: What Good Planning Looks like in Real Life
This is all great, but what constitutes a “good plan”? How do you know if you’re being diligent in your planning, or just guessing? Here are a few key points to keep at the top of your mind:
- Align with God. Our plans should be in tune with what the Bible has shown us to be right. Read more about creating successful plans.
- Do your research. If you’re passionate about something, you might want to turn it into a business. But if the market doesn’t want it, that wouldn’t be a good plan.
- Create something where nobody loses. A good plan isn’t one where someone wins, it’s where nobody feels like they’ve lost.
- Begin with the end in mind. Stephen Covey mentions this, and it’s all about know where you want to be and reverse engineer from there.
- Consistency is more important than intensity. Intensity leads to burnout. Consistency and persistency lead to living prosperously.
What else can you think of that would go into a good plan?
Hidden Abundance isn’t Just Financial Gain
When you think of living an abundant life, one that is full of prosperity, what do you think of? Do you think of a fat bank account? Fast cars, big houses, and eating the most exquisite caviar at the most expensive restaurants in Big City, USA? Most people think of abundance and living prosperously as being synonymous with lots of money.
There’s more to it than that, though.
Prosperity isn’t measured in dollars. It’s having comfort, peace, and family around you. Consider what God tells us just a little later in Proverbs 21.
“The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.” Proverbs 21:20 NIV
It’s not just having money; it’s being wise with what you do have. You store food (save and invest) and olive oil (back then an essential for cooking), so you don’t have to worry about how to make ends meet. The fools (those who aren’t putting together good plans or putting in the effort to make good things happen) gulp down their food. In times of abundance, they live large, in times of want they struggle. Perhaps Aesop took a lesson from Proverbs when writing about the Ant and the Grasshopper.
Plant the Seed, Water, Reap the Harvest
There are 7 Laws of the Harvest. Primarily being, you reap what you sow. When you put in the effort, tend your garden, you reap an abundant harvest. When you’re caught up in the hustle thinking that the faster you work the sooner you get rich, consider that you can’t garden faster. You can put in the effort, but you still have to allow the plant to grow.
The good news, though, is that part of the effort might be spreading out the work. If you tried to run an entire farm by yourself, you probably wouldn’t get very far. But if you have hired hands, the workload becomes manageable.
Are you trying to run an entire business by yourself? Perhaps it’s time to offload some of the work – like your writing tasks.
As a professional ghostwriter, I’m here to help see you through to your ultimate goals. Let’s chat about those goals, and come up with ways we can see them come to fruition. Book a free appointment on my calendar.