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How to Prosper in Life

How to Prosper in Life

Last updated on: May 11, 2018 at 12:48 am by Brenda Renee Coats

How to Prosper in Life 2018-05-11T00:48:57-07:00 Brenda Renee Coats

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Psalm 1 is often my go to piece of Scripture. I tend to flip the pages to its six verses not only when I’m being fickle about which Scripture to read before bed, but when I’m clueless about life – when I don’t know what the next right step is, or if I have anxiety as to where any next step might lead me in the future.

So much about the Christian life seems to be trying to figure out God’s will. Which job to take. Where to move. If we should move. Children are expected to know what they want to be when they grow up by the time they’re eighteen, which includes which college to attend, how to fund their tuition, and on and on it goes with decision after decision … until life ends.

It’s not every day we make decisions on careers or which person to marry. But if we’re not making big decisions, we’re making small ones. Take the grocery store for example. Or Wal-Mart – my favorite store (*cough, cough). You walk in, and you just need to pick up about twenty items, but in doing so, you’ll come across nine hundred and twenty three choices available to you. Want peanut butter? Okay, we’ve got Jiffy, Peter Pan, Skippy, organic, non-organic, crunchy, smooth, and oh, oh, oh, get this – peanut butter and jelly together in one jar! Also, are you sure you want peanut butter, Miss? Because we also have Nutella, and macadamia butter, cashew butter, almond butter, and sunflower butter.

See what I mean? With one item, you’ve had to choose from at least thirteen different varieties. So by the time you leave, you’re not only sick of the sight of food, you sincerely wish you lived in the olden days before any butter except fresh cow butter was a thing.

Anyway, what’s a person to do when there are so many decisions to make, and said person’s emotions tend to be about as stable as the boat Jonah was on before his shipmates figured out he was the source of their turbulent times and threw him overboard?

I think the answer lies in knowing that the decisions we make about the everyday-ness of life, even the bigger decisions about who to marry and where to live, are not the biggest decisions in life after all. And which peanut butter brand we eat certainly has very little, if any, eternal consequence. The biggest decisions in life are spiritual. Whether we reject God and His son, Jesus Christ. Or whether we go our own way. It’s about who we follow. Who we serve. Who we love. Who we believe.

Society would tell us that our worth is wrapped up in our professions (this is especially true for women these days). Or maybe our spouse’s profession or how well our kids behave. Or whether we have a boat, fancy motorcycle, or just a Volkswagen Bug that sputters down the street sounding as though someone is belting out in a bass voice “Potato, potato, potato ….” It’s silly sometimes the way we get ourselves into the trap of thinking what we do, who we know, or what we have is who we are or how much we’re worth.

Scripture tells us that a Christian’s worth is in He who is able to do far more abundantly that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. That is, the power of Jesus. Because Jesus is innocent, the Father looks upon us as innocent. Because Jesus will live forever, we will live forever. Ephesians 1 talks about all the spiritual gifts that are ours in and through Christ – and that is where we get our worth. Jesus. Not in a sparkling or sputtering car, a mate who will supposedly make us happy, or a profession that will hopefully earn us millions.

What we are and what we do matters. I’m not saying we should be couch potatoes and live off the government when we are perfectly capable of being a productive member of society. Scripture says a man who does not work shall not eat. It’s just that what we do for work isn’t so much the point. It’s who we rely on throughout the day, the week, the years, to carry us through and give us the steadiness of heart needed to fully enjoy the blessings of life, and endure the hardness and difficulties of the world.

Psalm 1 talks much about who we keep company with. It does matter who we marry, and what friends we choose at college, etc. But paranoia about the specifics of life do not in any way help us. Can God not use the professors at Liberty University just as well as He could use the professors at Harvard or a Community College? Can He not sanctify you through your marriage relationship whether you marry Ron, Dick, or Harry?

One thing I’ve learned just by living up toward fifty years now:

The people we hang with, the people we are instructed by, and the people we marry and share blood lines with are just that: people. It is important whether we walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. But – if our delight is in the law of the Lord, and if on His law we meditate day and night? Specifics of life won’t knock us down, and neither will difficult people (like ourselves). We will be stable. And like a tree, planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither, we will prosper.

This is not license for a believer to marry an unbeliever, for married men to hang with prostitutes, go to the bar so we can “evangelize” and so on. God clearly instructs us to not be unequally yoked with our spouse, to not be drunk with wine, and to, when we are tempted with any sin – but especially sexual sin – run! The point is: make His law, His statues, and His Person your delight. Above all, know Him. Serve Him. Love Him. Obey Him.

Psalm 1 says if we do, we will prosper. Maybe not monetarily. Maybe not social status wise. But in God’s eyes, and in the depths of our souls, we will be immovable. The storms of life will come and go. Big and small decisions will always need to be made, until our last breath. But if we’re grounded in His law, we’ll be like a tree, planted by the waters. We will be deeply rooted, held fast by the consumption of Living Water.

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