ON THE INCREASE

By: Dennis Harworth

Recently, the stock market rallied to set all-time record highs. It was also during this surge that there were multiple three-digit drops. These drops make investors very nervous and cause them to start talking about an impending recession. But most financial experts emphasize that the fluctuations are normal and recognize these stock market corrections usually occur outside of actual recessions.

The upsurge in the stock market might help some investors, but the instabilities sure create uncertainty in today’s society.  I don’t have to tell you, (especially if you live in California), that the increase in the price of fuel, food, housing and healthcare do not benefit the average consumer. 

However, you can rejoice and be exceedingly glad that our God, totally unlike the stock market, will never, ever dip down, decrease or decline because He is always on the increase.  Better still, our God wants to bless you and increase you in every area of your life more and more!! (Psalm 115:12,14). This means your spirit, soul, and body can be constantly growing and maturing. Your blessings; spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially, will be becoming more frequent.  Then it will be like my spiritual father often said, “Your life will get gooder and gooder”.

Let’s face it, God has had increase on His mind since the beginning.  God blessed Adam and Eve and the very first words He spoke to them was “Be fruitful and increase in number…” (Genesis 1:28 NIV).  After the flood, God spoke the same blessing of increase to Noah (Genesis 9:1).  God also had an increase mindset for Abraham: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2 NKJV).  In the original Hebrew, this divine blessing was to serve as a perfect example of prosperity. 

Now here is where it really starts getting good.  In Galatians it says, “All who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith” (Galatians 3:9 NLT).  By trusting and obeying God and His Word, you can be blessed beyond belief.  Try grasping this: God is an infinite God with an infinite number of blessings.  Infinite.  This means you will never receive all that God has to give.  It also means that no matter how wonderfully good it gets; no matter how many abundant blessings you receive; it can always get better!  In other words, there is always more increase ready to come to you!

You must realize that God really, really wants to bless you.  It is His desire as your loving Heavenly Father to bring blessing and increase into every area of your life.  You can absolutely trust the character and nature of God to be faithful to each word (Numbers 23:19) and every promise He has spoken (Hebrews 10:23).  Since God wants to increase you (Psalm 115:14), and delights in the prosperity of His people (Psalm 35:27), believe that God is continually working on your behalf. Therefore, with great expectancy, you can look forward to your entire life being ON THE INCREASE!