How to Prosper in 2023

Hello again, dear friends. It’s Reen… and as I shared last week, my word for the year is “prosper.” And prosper can mean more than simply financial prosperity. God can prosper you in your health, job, relationships, and your walk with Him.

But if financial prosperity is a goal, then the key is to partner with God. But your motives matter. James explains, “You want what you don’t have… Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” (James 4:2-3 NLT).

So, there are several things we need to do before we can prosper:

Partner with God and submit our desires to Him. Ask that our desires mirror His.
Intentionally seek His face. By choosing to walk more deeply with Him, read His Word, and trust His promises daily we demonstrate our desire to know Him more intimately.
Pray specifically and unceasingly. Writing a list of prayer requests with a space to describe answered prayers and the date they were answered is a great faith builder.
Step out in faith. God uses His Word, His instruction book for life, to speak. When you hear the quiet whisper of His Holy Spirit within, prompting you to act according to God’s Word, then obey. As Nike says, “Just do it.”

Thankfully, all of us can begin doing these things immediately… today… in this very moment. So, as we do, we can now explore the first key to prospering:

P.—Pray for God to open doors for new opportunities. I listened to a sermon years ago about Revelation 3 that states, “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of Him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.” One of the direct applications was challenging the hearers to trust Jesus to open doors of opportunity for them to evangelize unreached regions and people groups while praying Jesus shut doors against the enemy attacking them.

This verse also applies to asking Jesus to open doors for us. I have carried old skeleton keys on my keychain for years to remind me to pray for Him to open doors. I have given these out to people to encourage them to do the same and finally gave my last one to a friend as I was writing this column.

So, God knows the plans and opportunities He has for you. Check out Key #2 next week to learn more about His desire to prosper you!