Serving Bread

3 [The righteous] are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

During a short exercise of meditating on God’s word that my colleague, Ruth, was teaching to our students, I was struck by verse 3 of Psalm 1. This Psalm is probably in the top five of my favorite scripture passages, so I am familiar with it. On Monday night, God highlighted a few things out of this passage that spoke directly to my soul. The word ‘prosper’ especially caught my attention.

There are many ways to define the word prosper–most of it has to do with some sort of financial gain. For example, if you were to visit prosper.com, you would find an innovative website that connects lenders and borrowers. I’m sure some people would have no problem linking financial prosperity to Christian maturity. That’s not how I read scripture or this passage. However, using the picture of financial prosperity as a sort of metaphor for our intimacy with God may be the intent of the author.

We can define financial prosperity using many images and words: It can mean being successful, it can mean security, it can mean having a lot of disposable income. It can mean having a lot of stuff and having a lot to show for it (property, assets, toys, etc…). Perhaps one of the better definitions of prospering is to contrast it to not prospering. Lack of prosperity can be equated to a lack of hope, depression, or fear of the unknown (and the known).

What does it mean that for the righteous, “in all that they do, they prosper”? Starting with the converse, I have found that when my faith is at its weakest, when my God-desires are at their lowest, when my intimacy with God is unsatisfying, ministry and life is still happening, but there is no joy and whatever fruit I see does not impress me. Life and ministry become a chore. Prayer becomes a task. And relationships become more about filling my calendar rather than seeing God do a new thing in people’s lives. It’s not that ministry stops happening or people stop coming, but that I don’t care about anything. My joy is sucked from me.

But the seasons when I go deeper with God, I have a perspective and a picture of what God is doing that is deeper and more thorough than meets the eye. I find joy in all that I do: When I pray, I believe God is with me. When I preach, I believe the word is touching people’s hearts, when I am mentoring, I believe I have something to offer people. In some respects, I am enjoying God and God’s purposes (regardless of whether those purposes are ‘fantastic’ by any standards).

The righteous person is like a tree that is planted by great waters, receiving from God and yielding fruit in its right season. When that marks my life with God, I am patient with the way that God births fruit in me, in my family, and in my ministry. When that marks my life with God, I have eyes to see and have hope to hope God for things much more fantastic than anything that the secular world may offer me.

In “Building Black Wealth in America”, prosperity “is the epitome of financial stability, reliability, and security.” Our lives and ministry will epitomize stability, reliability and security when our lives with God are satisfying and full of intimacy. Regardless of the woes of the world and the instability of our personal situations, we will have no hesitation to see prosperity when we are rooted as a tree planted by streams of water.

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