Blessing and prosperity are two concepts that are often confused by believers. Even though the two are closely related, they are quite distinct. It is one thing to be blessed, and another to prosper. To be blessed is to be empowered and equipped to prosper. It is to be given an opportunity or a platform to prosper. To proper is to produce results using the empowerment and maximizing the opportunity. It is common to see many Christians asking God to bless them when what they really mean is to prosper them. The problem is that it is not God’s duty to proper them. It is his duty to bless them. The way it goes is that God blesses people and then commands them to prosper. Two scriptures come to mind:
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. Deut. 8.18...
Here, God doesn’t make the wealth for you. He gives you the power to make it. You can have the power but if refuse to put it to work, nothing happens for you. It is not the absence of blessing but the absence of work, not absence of opportunity but absence of commitment.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. 2:28
All of “be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth…” simply means prosper and it is clearly not God’s responsibility. It is man’s. To be praying to prosper is ignorance.
The Psalmist mentioned how a person who walks uprightly is blessed by God. However, the person’s prosperity is still up to him not God: “…and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper”, Ps. 1.3. If a blessed man does nothing, nothing will prosper. Even the giving of tithes, offerings and sacrifices to God don’t bring prosperity. They bring blessings that must still be maximized to bring prosperity.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Mal. 3.10
Blessing is a function of grace whereas prosperity is a function of labour. To illustrate, supposing a bank is recruiting. That is grace. It is a blessing – something the individual didn’t make happen. However, to maximize that blessing, each applicant will have to meet certain academic criterion that qualifies them for the job. The employment opportunity which is a blessing is a function of grace. The earning of that opportunity which is prosperity is a function of labour. You’d have spent years getting educated. The Apostle Paul puts it clearly when he said. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 1Cor. 15.10
The point to be made is that if something is up to God, it is granted. In fact, God did not ask the man he created to prosper without having blessed him first. So what is missing is not blessing. It is prosperity and that is not God’s responsibility. To be expecting God to do it is both an insult and an error. You will be expecting Him to do what He has asked you to do. That is not respectful at all. Well, the result is that the task will not be done. The prosperity will not come. Anyone that will see prosperity in their lives must put themselves to work so as to maximize the blessings in their lives.
Long story short. Stop looking for blessings. Go to work. Case Closed.
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