Proverbs 10:22 – The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

I believe any honest person would rather be rich than poor. Yet some of us believers have a real hard time reconciling wealth as blessing from God. In our society we are suspicious of the idea that a wealthy person can be godly at the same time because we equate wealth with worldliness. Yet this verse of Scripture seeks to open our minds to a great truth. Blessing or God’s favor is not the result of labor, it surpasses it. Abraham is a good example of God sovereignly choosing to bless someone both in the natural and spiritual realms.

If you believe that God is your good father, it becomes a lot easier to expect and appreciate that every so often he will surprise you with good gifts. We understand this principle in the natural realm, yet hesitate to accept it as a spiritual principle. Sometimes the gift is not stuff but an inexplicable turn of events in your favor. We even refer to good fortune as coming from “out of the blue”.  “Blessings crown the head of the righteous…” (Proverbs 10:6). That means it will come down and exceed your needs to flow outwards. If you are serving the Lord and find yourself wealthy, it is meant to flow to help those around you.

Instead of working longer and harder, God has given us his own financial plan: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10). Am I saying that we must first give to God before he will give to us? Yes and no. We who know him should give in obedience and with delight, remembering that he first gave. Such is the heart of God that in mercy He gives daily even to those who do not honor him in any way, “He causes his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (See Matthew 5:45). And he allows a harvest for man’s toil. So no matter how you analyze it, God is always giving first.