by T. M. Meek
There is, in fact, a direct relationship between getting to know God (sometimes called a “Higher Power” or “The Great Spirit”) and achieving wealth. The more sincerely we strive to seek after Him, learn of His laws for happiness and do our best to obey those laws, the more we come to know God and become better people. The more we know of God’s truths the more we learn just how much He wants to bless us and for us to bless one another.
Life comes with challenges which is exactly why we need divine help in the form of blessings to help us successfully overcome the difficulties of life. Some of these difficulties will come from our own creation but still other challenges and trials are brought upon us by those who are either thoughtless or sadly cruel. But those who seek to know God will ultimately find that it is His greatest desire to bless us –– especially in our times of need.
Putting the Lord God first in our lives as a daily habit is vital for us to do in order to receive the greatest blessings as well as to achieve the greatest level of happiness we can achieve in life. Once we have made this a daily habit, then it is right to pursue temporal wealth if we do so with the desire to help our families and others for good. As we do these two steps in that specific sequence (by putting the things of heaven first) then may we discover that the Lord is helping us, has helped us and will continue to help us along the way.
Imagine for a moment that you became completely financially self-sufficient and achieved true wealth. Imagine the good that you could do with your wealth to help bless your own family as well as others. Picture in your mind how you would help another to achieve the same. Then picture the person you helped now helping others to also achieve true wealth and helping others and so on, and so on.
Sure it would be fun to buy your own car and go on vacations and have the latest home entertainment system and lots of other expensive items. But we're talking about making sure you have the most basic needs first so that when you can truly afford to buy the fun things you've always wanted, you can enjoy them with little or no financial regrets. We're also talking about how your own personal decisions to learn and apply what you need to be prosperous will affect your life and the lives of others.
I absolutely believe in helping others. I love the ideals of philanthropy. But as much as it would be nice if I could feed every person, volunteer my time for every service opportunity available or donate to every worthy cause, because I am just one person and because I personally do not own all of the money in the world, I simply can't do all of the good I would like to do to help others.
It is precisely because of my limitations, as well as my desires to help as much as I can, that I feel that if I can teach just one other person some things that he or she needs to know to become successful in life, then hopefully he or she will become successful, help others and teach others to do the same. If this uplifting pattern is repeated over and over again, then I'll be able to humbly be a part of helping more people and more worthy causes than I could ever do alone as just one person. And it is far better for an individual to be able to earn their own wealth through good means than to be completely financially dependent upon another person or organization anyway.
Anyone who tells you otherwise does not truly have your best interests at heart.
I believe that God has given each of us at least one talent (others may have two or more) that if we pray to discover it with the intent to nurture it, then our diligent development of such talent will in some way bless us and our families as well as others and make the world a better place in the process if we freely choose to do so (as it is contrary to the order of heaven for any of us as God's children to be forced to do what is right and not have a choice.).
History shows how the right understanding of money and the correct use of such knowledge for good can bless ones own life as well as others –– especially when one places the love of God first as a part of daily life.
Whether it was Abraham, Job, Jacob or Boaz of the Old Testament, or Joseph of Arimathea or Peter, James, John or Andrew or the wise men who brought the baby Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh in the New Testament (all very wealthy and righteous men), they all had to learn the right things about money to be successful and have blessings for themselves and their families while fulfilling the ideal to be a blessing to others within their communities and even potentially across the globe.
Many times the best of the best have developed their own individual talent(s) and found joy in it as they became so good at what they did. And when ones talent and work blesses the lives of others, it's natural to enjoy such work even more and see heavens hand in it. It is often when we serve others selflessly through our talents – with no desire for praise or recognition – that we find the most fulfillment in life.
Although faith plays a prominent role in the success of any worthy endeavor (such as to discover and develop our talent(s) faith without the right works is fruitless or “dead” (James 2:17). Therefore the role of works as evidenced by the right action(s) is a key element in the proper exercise of faith in Christ. So faith alone is often not enough.
All who have achieved success of any kind had to take action. Education before implementation is a wise sequence for success, "For which of you, intending to build a tower [or prosperous business], sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he [or she] have sufficient to finish it?" (Luke 14:28.)
No matter what day and age we live in, we must pursue an understanding of money in the highest of terms by learning of those who earn it honestly and in ways that provide truly positive benefits for self and others so that we can know how we may do likewise and then teach others to do the same. In this way, not only do we take personal responsibility for our own financial self-reliance, but we become a blessing for others by encouraging those around us to do likewise.
We must also ensure that the use of any method for achieving success is appropriate to the time in which we live since some methods are outdated (such as the production, sale and use of horse drawn carriages as a means of common transportation for the masses in the U.S.), some are for our current time but may become outdated (such as the production, sale and use of gas powered vehicles) and other ways to acquire wealth are timeless (such as investing in real estate and the growth, sale and use of various types of foods).
The blessings of wealth can come in various forms. When it is in the form of an increased command of our time, this often means that we can spend it in loving and serving our families. Control over how we may spend our time –– especially with those we love –– is a form of wealth that often far outweighs the benefit of the actual money itself. The happiest of all families knows and applies this often.
When each of us begins to learn what we need to do and then we start taking the right actions consistently to achieve lasting prosperity, then and only then may we share a more realistic optimism to look forward to a brighter future of greater economic freedom for ourselves as individuals which will then strengthen our nation.
Taking responsibility to acquire an effective education in financial literacy and then committing to a wise personal stewardship over the money we earn through saving and investing and doing all we can to help others to do the same, is a simple yet powerful start that can provide a world of opportunity in this blessed nation – a nation upon which such hope was essentially founded under God.
There are promises made by God to each of us that are unique to the subject of prosperity. One of these promises is found in the book of Malachi in the Holy Bible: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:10 KJV Bible)
I encourage you to trust in the promise of the Lord as stated in that scripture. When you learn what you need to learn about money and then apply it correctly and consistently enough, then when you exercise faith in the Lord’s promise to allow
Him to be proved by paying at least 10% (ten percent) of your income to a church of your choice, and do so with a prayer of gratitude for the money you’ve earned, then you will realize the promise of receiving so many blessings that you won't have "room enough to receive it."
As you choose to donate to your favorite church or charity of your choice, and as you do so with no expectation of praise or recognition (by donating anonymously) then be assured that God sees your good works and will someday reward you openly. Anonymous donations provide a better opportunity for recipients to give God the credit for the blessing of the donation (which is ultimately where all blessings come from to begin with). This form of donating to a good cause will bring far more peace and lasting fulfillment than to donate in a way that seeks recognition from others to gratify ones ego.
Donating anonymously is one of the noblest ways to give back and make the world a better place. Many people have already tried it and seen the blessings. So can you.
Because this book focuses on both money and religion, I want to be clear that the views in this book are not intended to be an official representation of any one specific religion. As the author of this book, it is my firm belief that the doctrine of Jesus Christ is and has been declared accurately only by the Lord's anointed prophets as well as by Christ Himself as the latter includes His earthly ministry over two thousand years ago.
I in no way consider myself to be a prophet of God. I simply seek to share and express my personal understanding of the blessings that come from such deeply held beliefs I have found and know regarding the love of God and His perfect balance of justice and mercy in His love as a parent for all of us as His children. I believe that our Heavenly Father’s love is perfectly expressed in the great atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ as His divine Son in fulfillment of past prophecies towards eternal salvation and happiness as a part of God's plan for all who freely choose to believe and follow Him.
"...these things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." (John 20:31) That is a glorious truth! Jesus Christ is the literal living Son of the literal living God.
Although there are parts of the book that explore how God may turn tragedy into hope or otherwise reduce various challenges in our lives towards our blessing via what many people believe is “divine intervention” or “Divine Providence”, Mortal Experience Clock’s (MEC’s) and “Life Clocks” are terminology that were created by me and such terminology is not found in any scripture that I am aware of.
The terminology was created simply to provide expression for the possible ways God can bless each of us individually in our times of need when we cannot help ourselves with our own abilities alone. Alex’s visualizations are simply some optimistic imaginings of God’s power.
Since we can’t always understand all of God’s exact intentions behind a blessing or challenge we experience in life, we should ultimately trust in Him that He knows what He is doing. What is most important is to see His works as a blessing by thanking Him in all things and learn what He wants us to learn individually for our increasing personal success in becoming better at doing good.
The discussions held in the meetings by Linda Wise that promote faith in Jesus Christ and encourage bad people to become good and good people to become better by learning of the principles of Christ’s gospel, are based on actual scripture as revelation through prophets of God.
If here are any mistakes in this book regarding lessons about God and/or Jesus Christ (or about any other important truths about life) they are human mistakes and not mistakes of God. Because I feel I have done my best with a sincere heart to bring more light upon teachings of God regarding Him and life's purpose for us as His children, I have sought to share those things that are most vital and correct as are in harmony with our Father in Heaven's prophet servants as found in the Lord's holy scriptures.
It is therefore my hope and prayer that you, the reader, will receive these things in that light and thus allow room in your heart for the power of God to provide the kind of peace that only God can give that will help you to recognize any and all truths that are of Him and contained herein and that you will express gratitude to the Lord for such blessings as needed for eternal salvation in Him.
Seek to do what is right in following Christ while making the world a better place for your family, yourself and for others in any way that you can and you will see that God will help you in your sincere efforts. Our loving Father in heaven is the perfect example of prosperity and I know that it is His hope that each of us become more like Him in the specific abilities of achieving both spiritual and temporal wealth so we may bless one another in more ways more often. Our own success in life for good necessitates that we believe and share such hope.
The ultimate miracle in life is the miracle of changing ones nature to become more like Christ. Because a mighty change of heart for the better is the most important miracle any of us can let our Heavenly Father work within us individually, may something good in this book help to bring you closer to the realization of that miracle for yourself and leave you a better person as one nearer to God and thus happier, comforted and more confident in your abilities to face life's challenges successfully and experience greater joy. Then may you encourage such a miracle in the lives of those you love.
You were born to succeed for good
because you are a child of a Heavenly King.
Thank you for reading this book and recommending it to others.
T. M. Meek
Appendix B: The Financial Math of Hope vs. Despair (As included in the original article entitled, “Why Are So Many So-called Expert Financial Advisors Broke?”