Among the many rewards of personally engaging with God directly through His word, is the matter of guaranteed personal success and prosperity in all areas of ones’s life. As you immerse yourself in God’s word, you are setting yourself up for guaranteed personal success and prosperity in every area of your life. You are laying the foundation and infrastructure for your ongoing holistic success in life. Immersing yourself in God’s word big time is the root source of personal success in every area of your life.

Here is Psalm 1:1 – 3
Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

It is crystal clear from this scripture passage that it is the person who takes God’s instruction on board and allows it to saturate his mind who is likened to a tree planted by streams of water whose vitality and fruitfulness in due season are unfailing. Such a person prospers, i.e. succeeds at whatever he does, because he is planted, rooted in God’s word.

This prosperity and success is not  limited to one specific aspect of life but encompasses the entire gamut of life – relationships, career, academic, emotional, spiritual, psychological etc.  This kind of holistic success and prosperity comes from saturating our minds and thoughts, our entire person with God’s word.

A practical example of this truth in practice is found in Joshua 1:7 – 8

Above all, be strong and very courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

Again we see here that prosperity and success in whatever Joshua would do was only guaranteed if he was to meditate on and carefully observe everything written in the book of instruction without deviating from it to the right or to the left, i.e. without compromising or diluting it. Then only was the prosperity and success guaranteed.

 Our thoughts are critical in shaping who we are and determining our actions for which reason we need to intentionally saturate them with God’s word (“mediate on it day and night”) leaving “no thought unturned” by the word of God. “As a man thniketh in his heart, so is he,”a phrase popularised by the writer James Allen and so oft quoted is very true and traces its root to the KJV of Proverbs 23:7.  The apostle Paul speaks about taking “every thought captive to obey Christ” (Corinthians 10:5), not a single one is spared but every one is brought under the authority of God as it is challenged and tested by His word. You will not reap the rewards or ever discover the benefits of God’s word unless you allow it to affect every nook and cranny of your thought life, nothing preserved from its effect, no holds barred.

It is worth noting (Joshua 1:7) that this is a proactive exercise requiring strength and courage (determination and persistence) to “observe the whole instruction”. This was not meant to be an easy and effortless ride.  It requires an intentionality and determination to allow the word of God to permeate every area of our thought life and refuse to give in to the temptation to compartmentalise it, to limit its application and working to particular areas of our life only.

So submerge yourself totally, your thought life, in God’s word leaving “no stone unturned”.  Don’t settle for an artificial divide between what you will and will not allow the word of God to affect.  Allow it to flow freely and saturate your entire being with it.  Don’t dissociate your walk with the Lord from the rest of your life and become a disjointed person.

It is this immersion of our mind and thoughts that lays the foundation and infrastructure setting us up for success and prosperity in whatever we do in our lives. It is holistic success, success across every are of our lives, that is going to be of substantial and lasting value.

A man’s success in and the value of his life is not measured by monetary value alone – that is cheapening and narrowing success and prosperity. The value of our life on earth and the reward that we shall receive in heaven is measured by our holistic success in life and how well we have run your God- ordained race.

But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.
Acts 20:24

The value the apostle Paul put on his life was in completing the course God had marked out for him and ministry he had received from The Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else was subjected to this one goal the apostle held – that of finishing his course and the ministry he had received. When he considered his life’s worth, everything else faded in significance. What was paramount was to finish his race and complete the ministry that The Lord had trusted him with. And it is not only Paul or a selected few that are entrusted by God with the work of His kingdom. It is every believer  who has their individual race marked out for them to complete.

For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10

Each one of us have our own calling and set of works to complete that we receive from The Lord Jesus Christ which adds immense value to our lives here on earth and determines the rewards we receive in heaven. No believer is excepted.

The level of our engagement with God, our walk with the Lord is the driving force for our race in life, the engine that powers and drives our destiny on earth.