The Key to Prosperity and Success

Tuesday, 19th June 2007

Yesterday, I mentioned briefly about meditation on God's Word. Today, I will elaborate more about this.

If we look at the following passages in the Bible, we note that the secret to success and prosperity is day-and-night meditation.

In Josh 1:8, God told Joshua, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful".

In Ps 1:2-3, the Psalmist tells us that the blessed man is one that "delights in the law of the LORD, and meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."

So what exactly is meditation? Because of the new-age movement, many of us picture someone sitting in a lotus position with hands pressed against each other and repeating something like "ahh umm" over and over again.

The original Hebrew word for meditation is hagah (Strong's H1897), which means to utter or mutter under one's breath.

Some of us may remember a cartoon character by the name of Mumbly, that appeared on our TV screens in the 1970s. This dog would constantly mumble and mutter under its breath, and no one could make out what it was mumbling.

Now imagine us being like Mumbly, but instead of muttering something completely incomprehensible, we mutter under our breath the Word of the Lord, and do so throughout the day.

Being able to mutter verses from the Bible pre-supposes that we have already commited those passages to memory (ie. memorisation of God's Word is a given.)

In Pastor Prince's sermon "God's Guarantee for Your Prosperity (preached on 27 May 07), he gives us very practical ways on how to apply this in our life.

We spent much of our time waiting. If we take the train or bus to work each day, there is time that is spent waiting for the train or bus to arrive. If we drive to work, there will be time spent waiting for the traffic lights to change from red to green, or even while stuck in peak-hour traffic.

When going for lunch, we are likely to have to queue up for our food or for a place to sit. [Those attending New Creation Church have the added "bonus" of spending hours queuing up to enter the Rock Auditorium or its overflow rooms.]

Anyway, rather than grumbling about the time being wasted having to wait, we can instead turn these into opportune moments to mutter verses under our breaths!

When we leave for work in the morning and are waiting for that bus or train to arrive, we can mutter to ourselves, "this is the day that the Lord has made. Let me rejoice and be glad in it (Ps 118:24)". We then find ourselves pleasantly surprised to be looking forward to the rest of the day.

While waiting for that key meeting with the boss or client to start, we can mutter to ourselves "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13)" and we find that the meeting turns out well, and we find favour with the boss or client.

While awaiting to fall asleep, we can mutter to ourselves "I will lie down and sleep peacefully, because you alone O Lord makes me dwell in safety (Ps 4:8)", and we very soon doze off to serene, uninterrupted sleep, waking up the next morning truly refreshed and recharged.

The key to prosperity and success is constant meditation, and we can do it everyday, throughout the day. Amen?

Oh by the way, New Creation Church's congregation has now hit 16,000 and the key to their growth is likely because their leadership have been meditating non-stop on God's Word :-)