God's been teaching me a lot about prosperity lately. Kind of a loaded term and I guess that's the point. If I had to sum it up for you, I'd have to say the true measure of success in a person's life would come down to what they do with what they're given. Some make the mistake of believing that if a person has a meager salary, they are not successful. I believe it's a gross mistake to equate success to a dollar amount or what car you drive or how big your house is. I see God as a creator who has created each person with a specific skill set that is closely tied to their specific purpose.

Logically speaking, when Mr. Ford was building the first car, he designed something with wheels and a place to seat people. He also put multiple things under the hood of the car that collectively would cause movement. I would even go so far as to say that there wasn't one thing under the hood that didn't in someway whether directly or indirectly aid the car in carrying out it's purpose. It would be stupid to suppose that after his design and thought, his first car would resemble a dishwasher instead. If God is an intelligent creator, then he would have made us with a skill set that would be able to help us carry out our purpose, whatever that may be. I also think it's a mistake to believe that every object ever designed was meant to be a car. Last time I checked my car doesn't do a very good job of washing my dishes. It's equally not smart to say that if someone isn't doing what you are doing, then they are wrong.

Case and point: My goal is to create wealth and give it away. I personally know people who are involved with missions that rely heavily on the giving of others to carry out their purpose which is to bring the Gospel to a specific people group on the other side of the globe. When I was an immature cotton headed ninny-muggin, I may have said that they were weak for needing the support and money of others and they should have been more focused on creating money for themselves so that they could fund their ability to do missions. It could be that they shirked some responsibility somewhere along the way, but could it be that God simply hadn't designed them for that purpose? So, when it really comes down to it, true success can only be measured by us taking the talents and abilities we were created with, and glorifying God with the work of our hands.

The work that we do really isn't the point. It's doing what God has asked us to do with what He's given us. God being a wise father, he teaches us success. He allows us to try, fail, and adjust. He only entrusts to us what we can handle. Again, success could take any number of shapes depending on the life it's representing. Going back to what I know about my own personal journey, The reason why I don't have $10,000 in the bank is because I'm not ready for that yet. Money isn't very important, but it can be if God designed me to make a lot so I can give a lot away. It's just as wrong for a person to pursue success in the business world when he was called to be a missionary in a third world country, just as much as it would be wrong for me to quit what I'm doing and go be a missionary on the other side of the world.

I understand that my growth is a process so I'm not really in any kind of hurry. I trust that God is mentoring and teaching me how to handle having money before he lets me have it. I'm so excited about God's glory being multiplied by people living out the divine design they were created with. It has got to bless God when He sees someone truly functioning exactly how he designed them to function. If you're wondering how this is even possible, it's not. It's not possible if we try to carry out our design through our own efforts. The only time where this concept can become a reality is when Christ comes into our life and lives through us. Then and only then are we truly the person we were created to be.

"The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of 'little Christs', all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented - as an author invents characters in a novel - all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him." C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity