Every once in a while, a certain word will come to the forefront of my thoughts and stay there, and it will become the focus of my study time. About two and a half months ago, it was the word “feet.” It’s a word that has popped up in my study every now and then for the last couple of years, and that morning, many ideas came together in an avalanche of thought about the topic. Another series of blogposts, perhaps. Or maybe some YouTube videos. I’ve been working on some ideas for that.
But, anyway, while studying Ephesians 6:15 that morning, I looked at the translation of the Greek word for “peace” and saw that it implies “prosperity,” and my mind immediately recalled the promise that we find so often in the Book of Mormon:
Behold, do ye not remember the words which he spake unto Lehi, saying that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land? And again it is said that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. (Alma 9:13)
So many people have a pre-conceived idea about what “prosperity” looks like. Most of the time, it has something to do with one’s material wealth or temporal situation. But the definition for “prosperity” leaves the context of that prosperity pretty vague:
Prosperity: Advance or gain in any thing good or desirable; successful progress in any business or enterprise; success; attainment of the object desired; as the prosperity of arts; agricultural or commercial prosperity; national prosperity.
Prosperity can be had in any endeavor that is good. It is the object of our desire and the focus of our pursuit that is what will determine what “prosperity” looks like.
Scriptures like the one quoted from Alma, above, give us a hint about what our desire and pursuit should be. It says that if we do not keep God’s commandments, we will “be cut off from the presence of the Lord.” We are supposed to understand that being “cut off from the presence of the Lord” is a negative outcome—something that is the opposite of our pursuit. Consequently, it follows that “being in the presence of the Lord” is the best pursuit and that that is the context through which we will experience the greatest prosperity.
What do you expect that prosperity to look like—both to you and to others? What do you expect to experience—both internally and externally? What did it look like for men and women of God in the scriptures? What did it look like for Jesus himself?
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a “prosperity gospel,” albeit not in the way that most people think, and that prosperity brings peace—a peace that surpasses all understanding.