The Secret to Holistic Riches

UV 1524/10000 The Secret to Holistic Riches

Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.

2 Chronicles 1 v 12

God’s blessings are holistic. He does not divide it into spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional. These strands are all intertwined- we cannot separate one from the other. Yes, we should not set our hearts on our earthly riches or we would like Lot’s wife turn back to it disregarding God’s call and get rooted to this earth. Setting our hearts on something implies giving priority to it. Solomon as a young person gave priority in his life to gaining a heart of wisdom. Hence, to wisdom the Lord added knowledge, riches, wealth and honour. It is said that the only true riches is who or what one is. When we set our love upon the name of God, upon Jesus, He will satisfy us with long life and after a long life, He will show us the riches and beauty of eternity – this is what is promised in the last verse of Psalm 91. If we set our hearts as much of the contemporary world does on the accumulation of monetary riches thinking it is the short cut to instant and constant happiness of every kind, the Lord might well allow us to get that rich but He would send poverty to our souls, an emptiness to our inner being. It will be a kind of Pyrrhic victory or vain conquest.

Wisdom is far more valuable than knowledge. It is the application of knowledge to real life issues. Early in life as well as early each day, we need to ask the Lord for wisdom to live that our lives and that day, giving priority to the Lord and His rule in our lives. Moses gave priority in his life and leadership to seek the presence of the Lord over His blessings. The presence of the Lord with Moses and Israel distinguished them from the rest of mankind. Moses knew that if the Lord’s presence left him and Israel, the blessings too would depart from them. The Lord is not partial to anyone but if He is present with us, He will mark His presence with us by differentiating us from the rest of mankind.

While blessings are holistic and inclusive of all types- material, monetary, filial, intellectual and emotional- all spiritual riches of heavenly places of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, humility and self control are promised us in Jesus Christ. When we make our homes and workplaces full of such spiritual fruit and emotional riches, these too become heavenly places. We must seek first His kingdom and His righteousness in all our relationships and all the other things that we need like material, monetary, intellectual, social and emotional riches will be added to our lives. How do we seek His kingdom and His righteousness: we should study diligently the Word, convert the Word into practical principles and then turn the principles into specific actions and the actions into lifelong habits. When we do this the Lord sees our faithfulness and diligence and blesses us abundantly. For example, the Word says that we should praise the Lord continually and we would be blessed. I turned that into a principle that I need to open what I call a Praisebook account. I started listing ten things I am thankful for – some of the items in that list I thanked and praised in anticipation. Now a month later I find many of those prayers were granted. We need to , in a manner of speaking, disguise our requests as thanksgiving, our prayers as praise.

Prateep V Philip