Memorise: Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. Psalm 67:5-6
Read: Psalm 92:12-15 (KJV)
12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15 To shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Bible in one year:
Ezra 4-6,
Revelation 22,
Hymn:
Sing hymn 1
Message:-
Those whom the Lord refers to as the “flourishing” are those who have the capacity to lend to nations.
They are the kind of people that nations can humbly go to in order to explain their needs, anticipating that they will receive something impactful from them. The first thing you need in order to flourish is divine favour. In Romans 9:15-16, God said:
“….I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”
In other words, struggling for wealth does not necessarily lead to prosperity. This is why an African proverb says, “It is not the lack of food that stops a cat from being as big as the dog.”
After God has shown you favour, the next thing you need in order to flourish is hard work. Lazy people don’t work hard, so they don’t flourish. In John 5:17b, Jesus Christ said:
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”
God is a hard worker, so it would not be in His character to cause a lazy fellow to flourish. In Proverbs 13:4a, the Bible says:
“The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing:”
In my lifetime, I have seen a lot of people who want to flourish without working hard. They remain poor, because God’s word cannot be broken. His word says in Proverbs 22:29
“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”
If you don’t wand to work hard, then there is no way God can cause you to flourish. When God wants to bless someone, He opens doors to him or her. However, if He opens a door for you, He won’t push you through it; you will have to do what it takes to go through it yourself.
For you to flourish, beyond working hard, you must work right. Working hard is not as important as working right, otherwise all labourers would be the richest people in the world. Peter and some other disciples fished all night but they caught nothing because they were fishing in the wrong place (John 21:3-6). You can only know which way to cast your net if you have surrendered the boat of your life to the Master. Those whose hearts are sold out to Jesus never lack direction. They always have net-breaking catches because Jesus tells them which direction to cast their nets. Is it so with you?
Prayer Point
Father, I am willing to work hard and work right; please bless me today.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional Lessons was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical Churches in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
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