It is probably safe to say that most of us want to be prosperous and successful, whether it’s as work, in our financial endeavors, our friendships, and on the list can go. Is there anything wrong with that? Of course not. However, we must keep in mind that prosperity and success, as the world defines it, is not to be our primary goal.
Welcome to the Point of Purity Podcast! I’m your host Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #177. This week’s Episode will help us understand “How to Become Prosperous.”
The top priority of every Christian must be to know God and as a result of that heart-knowledge to live a life that truly honors and glorifies Him continuously and consistently. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV) “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (Colossians 3:17 NLT) “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
To do this, we must begin by carefully examining the priorities of our heart. And the best way to start is by asking yourself these three questions. 1) What is most important to me? 2) What drives me throughout the day? And 3) What excites me?
The bottom-line is that your answer to those three questions will reveal where your priorities lie and where you will focus the majority of your daily attention and energy. If you are choosing to place your life’s emphasis upon anything other than knowing God and glorifying Him, you will fail to achieve the ultimate goal of glorifying Him. This goal is best described in the following verses: “So we make it our goal to please Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:9a NIV’84) We are to daily “Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10 ESV) And we are to “be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.” (2 Peter 3:14b NASB’95)
In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says we are to “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Consider carefully what Jesus is saying here. First and foremost, the things we are to seek after are God’s kingdom in your heart and God’s righteousness in your life. How are you doing with that pursuit? The problem most of us struggle with is that in our King Me, self-centeredness you and I are trying to build our own little kingdoms. So, seeking a different “King” to reign in our lives isn’t just low on our priority list, it’s not even on our radar.
We have the tendency to put self on the throne daily. Every day we try to manufacture events and control circumstances in such a way that we are able to experience constant stress-free happiness and a fulfilling satisfaction. Unfortunately, as a result, we become a slave to self – all of our thoughts and energies, attitudes and behaviors are directed toward fulfilling the will of “King Me.” “I want. I need. I desire. I deserve. I have to have. I can’t live without.”
Occasionally, we may even try to fit a thing or two of God’s into our already-packed agenda, thinking that we are doing well. Yet God says the way to true contentment, peace, and godliness is by dethroning “King Me” and seeking His kingdom in our hearts and His righteousness for our lives. The Lordship and Leadership of Christ – His rule, His authority must always be our highest priority.
Think about the verb “seek” in Matthew 6:33. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” To “seek” is a word that carries the idea of craving something so much that you focus all or your thought and attention on finding it, so as to acquire it. You just cannot live, you cannot function without it. It’s like a heat-seeking missile that, once fired, has a singular target or goal and won’t stop until it reaches it. Nothing can deter it from its purpose. Just like that missile, you are to daily choose to seek after God’s kingdom and righteousness to reign in your heart and life. In other words, you are choosing to seek after it at any cost – choosing to bend your entire will toward getting it, submitting yourself to the pursuit of it.
Now let’s face it ... there are a lot of things out there that you can seek after – money, prestige, power, status, fame, happiness, pleasure, etc. – yet, out of all the things you could seek for and occupy yourself with, God says you are to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. That is to be your primary target.
Let me interject an important observation here. It is important to emphasize that Jesus uses this verb “to seek” in the present tense, active voice, and imperative mood. If you recall from previous episodes, when something in the Bible is written in the present tense, it means the action being described (in this case, seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness) is occurring in actual (or real) time. It is happening right now; it is happening right now; it is happening right now – constantly, never ending, always in real-time. That’s the present tense. Now, when God uses the present tense to command us to seek His kingdom and His righteousness first and foremost, He is telling us that this is something we are to never stop doing (never, ever). We are to choose moment-by-moment and day-by-day to focus all of our thoughts and attention on wilfully submitting to God’s kingdom and righteousness in our heart and life.
Second, when something is written in the active voice, it means that you are doing the action. You have to do it; no other human being can do it to you or for you. God’s command to seek His kingdom and His righteousness is given to you specifically. It is something that you alone must choose to be constantly doing every day of your life. I cannot choose it for you. I cannot do this for you, nor can you accomplish this task for me.
Now, the exciting thing is that we do not do this in our own power. If we did, I guarantee it would end up being all about us instead of God, and we would end up failing miserably. Don’t forget that our ultimate goal is to do everything for God’s glory not our own. As Paul declares in Philippians 4:13, Christ gives us the strength to do all things that glorify Him. As you daily choose to submit to your Creator, your Savior, your Heavenly Father; the Holy Spirit gives you both the ability and the know-how (the understanding and the wisdom) as well as the deep heart’s desire to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness in your life.
Finally, the imperative mood simply means this is a command. When God gives us a command, our response and responsibility is simple: obey. Our attitude should reflect Matthew 6:10 which says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Think about how God’s will is done in heaven. Immediately, willingly, worshipfully, unconditionally, and unreservedly. This is how we are to respond to any and all of God’s commands in Scripture. Your kingdom come, your will be done immediately, willingly, worshipfully, unconditionally, and unreservedly.
If, in that moment, you choose to not obey, or to delay obedience, you are disobedient and that is sin (1 John 3:4). Do you grasp the impact and importance of this? If you are not daily, actively focusing your will, thoughts, and actions toward submitting to God’s kingdom and righteousness ruling in every part of your life, you are sinning. You are not only disobeying a direct command from your Heavenly Father, but you are doing so because King Me is sitting on the throne calling the shots. I hate to tell you this, but you are NOT God. C’mon now, I know you agree with me. You are not God. I am not God. So, when King Me is sitting on the throne of your heart, you are worshiping a false god, and that my friend is idolatry.
Look at Matthew 6:33 again as we piece these elements back together. Jesus says we are to “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This is a command from God that only you can do. I can encourage you, challenge you, urge you, but you must choose to obey. You must choose to obey in real-time, every moment of every day. You must choose to constantly pursue, first and foremost, God’s Leadership and Lordship over every aspect of your life, every moment of every day. This is not an impossibility. You can truly “do everything through Christ, who gives (you) strength.”
OK. Now I want to reiterate here that seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness means you are choosing moment-by-moment, day-by-day to fully deny your selfish King Me desires while at the same moment craving and pursuing after His rule, His will, His way, and His authority in every aspect of your life, both in public as well as private. Whether at work, home, out shopping, on the golf course, at the beach, on vacation – wherever you may be and whatever you may be doing – you are to always seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness in that activity, event, or place. Always!
Seeking God’s Kingdom and righteousness involves completely immersing yourself in the understanding of His will and walking in total obedience to the Lord at all times. Before being prosperous or successful in any other endeavor, you should desire, more than anything, to be prosperous and successful as a Christian. You do this by striving, in every aspect of your life, to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. Only then will you experience true prosperity and success. Only then will you be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:24 NLT)
And so I ask: What is true prosperity and success? The world would say it’s achieved when you have such things as a happy marriage, your kids all honor and respect you, you have a solid and secure position at work, along with a six-figure income, you’re considered a pillar in the community, your bank account is growing, and you’re enjoying great health. While all those things may define the American dream, they are not God’s definition of prosperity and success. You see, we tend to make everything about us. But it’s not. It’s all about God.
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8 KJV)
Notice here in Joshua 1:8 God is telling Joshua that when he meditates daily on the Scriptures, then Joshua would make his way prosperous and enjoy good success. Watch this now: It is only when you choose to meditate upon God’s Word and then apply it to your daily life that you will see a powerful change to your attitude and behavior. You are then choosing to make your “way” – your course of life – prosperous. It is then that the contentment, peace, and godliness God has promised to you will be experienced in your life. You are truly prosperous.
The word “prosperous” in Joshua 1:8 refers to achieving a set goal. Remember, the goal of the Christian is to know God and glorify Him in everything we think, say and do. When you choose to meditate daily on God’s Word, choosing to apply its truth to your everyday living and seeking to continue to grow in your knowledge of and love for your Heavenly Father, you are changing the course of your life. You are achieving the ultimate goal. You are then being truly prosperous. Prosperity is not about achieving the great American dream and having it all. It’s about living a life that fully glorifies God. It is living out 2 Corinthians 5:9 – daily choosing to make it your goal to please God. When you are consistently living that kind of life, you are experiencing all that God has planned for you. You are living prosperous.
According to Joshua 1:8, another by-product of meditating on God’s Word is that you will “have good success.” The word “success” literally means that you have been given insight and comprehension into who God is and what His will is. The direct result of this insight is that you are able to act wisely in your every-moment choices. Success isn’t found in gaining that promotion at work. Success is experienced only when you know God more and choose those things that will bring honor and glory to Him – succeeding at that which He created you to do.
Prosperity and success, as God defines it, can only be achieved as we meditate on His Word. We are to “read it all the days of [our] life so that [we] may learn to revere the LORD [our] God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.” (Deuteronomy 17:19 NIV’84) We are to “delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night. [Then we will be] ... like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. [Our] leaves never wither, and [we] prosper in all (we) do.” (Psalm 1:2-3 NLT)
OK. Let’s hit the pause button until next week’s episode as we continue our miniseries on How to Glorify God. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about The Pure Man Ministry (what we do to help men across the globe find freedom and victory over sexual sin), be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com.
Let me wrap up this week’s podcast by taking just a brief moment to give you a glimpse into our ministry. You see, we do a whole lot more here at The Pure Man Ministry than just producing a weekly podcast.
The Pure Man Ministry is faith-based and 100% donor-supported. Every aspect of our ministry from the website, to the podcasts, to the conferences, to the free APP, to the books I’ve written, and especially our 12-week Point of Purity Program (all of it) is only made possible by our team of ministry partners who faithfully support this ministry financially.
Without compromise The Pure Man Ministry shows men and women across the globe how to have a growing, vibrant relationship with Jesus that is real and personal. To be quite frank with you - we need ongoing financial assistance from people who are committed to helping us provide the hope and help men and women across the globe desperately need in order to win their personal battle against the beast of sexual impurity.
I am honored to extend to YOU a personal invitation to join us as we continue to impact our world by equipping and training men and women how-to live-in purity, godliness, and integrity. To give your tax deductible gift to this ministry today, simply go to ThePurityCoach.com and click on the Donate button in the upper right corner. And thank you for partnering with us!
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So, until next time this is Author, Speaker, Certified Professional MentorTM and Purity Coach Steve Etner reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.
