We work so that God can bless the work of our hand. Doing our part is like putting a lighting rod in the ground. When God sends lighting we are going to receive it. However if we never put a lighting rod in the ground, we will never receive the lighting we are looking for. Remember our study of Joseph, he did his part, but the hand of God was on him to promote him. How about Queen Esther interceding for the Children of Israel? Was it only God’s favor that put her in that position? No, her natural beauty and a time of preparation put her in the position to one day intercede and save her people. It was the natural and the supernatural.

If you want to be a deep sea fisherman…you can’t live in Iowa. What? For those of you reading outside of the USA, Iowa is landlocked in the middle of the country. If we want to catch fish we have to at least position ourselves on or around water. To be fair, Iowa does have some lakes and rivers where you can fish, however you get the point…God expects us to do our part. My wife and I own one business and are part owners of another business. God is blessing us financially through these businesses but we had to take the steps to get into them. Believe me they were steps of faith and practical tasks as well. It is faith and works. Here is Dr. Anderson’s view of our responsibility in this divine partnership.

There are no shortcuts to great wealth…When you try to find easy money, you actually rob yourself of many of the lessons that you need for success. You must learn discipline, passion, generosity and creativity…The world determines wealth and success by what you have. God determines wealth and success by what you give. Success is about what you become. You must develop the character to own you possessions or they will own you. (1)

God generally does not drop money out of heaven (as he did manna in the wilderness). He is not going to counterfeit it either. No…to enter abundance you have to make changes and take practical steps! We will discuss the practical aspects of this in upcoming blogs.

1  Dr. C. Thomas Anderson, Becoming a Millionaire God’s Way, (New York: New York, Faith Words, Hachette Book Group USA, 2006), p.xvi