God’s View Of Prosperity

The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

Genesis 39:23

Think about Joseph’s circumstances. He was a slave, bound to his master. Yet the Bible says he was prosperous. We have this idea in America that prosperity is related to money and possessions, but prosperity in the eyes of God refers to character. If we are true to the Lord and His Word, we are rich. If we are in His will, we have the assurance that all things work together for good, something we certainly see evident in the life of Joseph.

It has been said that God doesn’t do anything or allow anything to be done to us that we would not choose for ourselves, if we could only see things from His perspective. If we could see every event exactly as God does, we would do things the very same way. He sees the end from the beginning, how everything fits together, and how necessary some of our hurts and disappointments are. Prosperity isn’t a matter of circumstances, but a matter of character. When Scripture says that Joseph was prosperous, it has little to do with how many material possessions he had, but with how much of him God had. Even though a slave, Joseph was a prosperous man.