Prayer is Prosperity
from Everyday Liturgy by Thomas

We must go about our labors quietly, calmly and lovingly, entreating Him to prosper the works of our hands; by thus keeping heart and mind fixed on God, we shall bruise the head of the evil one, and beat down his weapons to the ground.

-Brother Lawrence

A lot has been made of the prosperity gospel. As Scot McKnight has written: “The prosperity gospel (or the health and wealth gospel) teaches that God desires the material, spiritual, and physical prosperity of his people. To become prosperous, all one has to do is believe, receive, and act upon God’s promises. The prosperity gospel is a half-truth, perhaps less.”

Brother Lawrence, in his spiritual maxim on vocation, defines prosperity differently. Prosperity is the riches that come when our work equals our worship.

Since liturgy means “the work of the people,” our work should be worship. If our work is worship, then our work should be prayer. And if our work is prayer, we will prosper, not with a raise or promotion or BMW, but in spiritual growth, discipleship and a fusing of God’s will to our work. To take from John Mark MacMillan via David Crowder, our work and worship, just like heaven and earth, should meet with an unforeseen kiss. When that happens, our prosperity will be in our prayer.

Work. Worship. Prayer. Prosperity. When they are all describing the same thing—our vocation—we know we are on the right track. To prayer and prosperity!