Any prosperity is a cause of joy for many.
Joy for the one who succeeds, joy for his family and his friends, joy for the whole church and may be joy for society in general. Joy for the angels and spirits of the saints and joy for God Himself...
St John the Apostle sent to his disciple Gaius, saying: “I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 Jn 2).
Prosperity is also among the qualities of the spiritual man.
He is the one about whom the Psalm says: “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper” (Ps 1:3). And it has been said about the Upright Joseph: “The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man... And that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand” (Gen 39:2,3).
We notice here that it is prosperity in all things.
“Whatever he does shall prosper”... “The Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand”...
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The Lord’s grace does not depart from him in any work, so whatever he does prosper. The elements of success are also in his personality, do not leave him in whatever he does. So he becomes prosperous in all things, whether in his spiritual life, his work, his family life or in all his knowledge. We give an example for that:
Joseph the Upright : He was prosperous and popular in every work:
In his family, he was loved by his parents, and his father even made him a tunic of many colours. He was good at missing his brothers. And as a servant in the house of Potiphar, he was very prosperous and popular, so his master: “ Made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put in his
And when he became minister of supply in Egypt, he was very prosperous and saved Egypt from the famine and also saved the surrounding countries. He was loved by Pharaoh and so he left everything in the hands of Joseph and made him second in charge of the kingdom (Gen 41:40-44).
The Holy Bible presents prosperity as a kind of blessing.
And so in Deut 28, the chapter of blessings and curses, we find that prosperity is a blessing from God as we see that failure is of His curses and punishments...
The Holy Bible gives us examples of prosperous people:
David, for example, as a youth was prosperous, as we have discussed this issue before here on st-takla.org in other sections. He was able to defeat Goliath the giant, he was also successful in making the distressing spirit depart from Saul (Sam 16:23). And it was also said about David that he was accepted in the sight of all the people (1 Sam 18:5).
The same prosperity was David’s companion in the land of captivity, so Darius gave him authority over all those who had influence in his kingdom. And Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius (Dan 6:28).
And Nehemiah was prosperous with King Artaxerxes and succeeded in building the wall of Jerusalem. The same with his companion, Ezra the scribe. Zerubbabel was also prosperous, as the Divine inspiration said about him in the Book of Zechariah the Prophet: “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!” (Zech 4:7).
St Paul the Apostle was also one of the greatest who prospered in the service.
Here, some may ask a reversible question :
Are not there some of God’s children who were broken in their lives and did not prosper?!
I would say to you that God’s children are frequently surrounded by problems, difficulties and weaknesses from the outside (2 Cor 6:5). But in spite of that, they succeed in facing these difficulties. Such things do not shake them from within, do not press them ; and they do not collapse before them. But as the Apostle St Paul said about himself and his fellow-workers: “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2 Cor 6:10).
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