Many times people think you are rich or poor depending on how much money or wealth you have. However, poverty is of the mind and usually people who think like poor people, will eventually be poor. If you are a complete adult and you think that someone should be sending you money and taking care of you, then you are mentally poor. If you are waiting for your relative or friend to keep sending you money, and you are not ready to work, then you are mentally poor. As long as you think that your prosperity depends on others, then you are mentally poor and you have no one to blame, but yourself. So people may not have money, but they think like the rich, they try to provide a solution to problems, they are productive. Even if they do not have money today, it is a matter of time they will get wealth, provided they trust in God.
So what we should know is that if the person of Jesus Christ saves your soul, salvation will take you to heaven, it does not give you money. However, the principles of Jesus Christ gives you money or better stated wealth. So Jesus gave us some warning about money in Mathew 6:24 1. We should not love money 2. We should not serve money. Jesus also went ahead to say in Mathew 6:33 that we should seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Meaning that once you put God first, and make Him your priority material, possessions will be added to you, or like how we say it in Nigeria, it will be jara.
Proverbs 23: 7 says “for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So you cannot achieve more than how you see yourself, the mind is a very powerful tool. If you see yourself as poor, then that is how you could eventually become. This does not mean you should be arrogant or have a bloated opinion about yourself. However, it means you should think big, do not also underestimate yourself. Your mind is the tool God has given you to create a good life for yourself.
Why are many African nations’ poor while Europe, America and several Asian countries are rich? It has nothing to do with intelligence or natural resources. It is the way we think, our attitude and our mind. Our mind has constrained us and a person cannot go beyond his mind. For instance, in a developed country, if you break the law like beating the traffic light you will be fined because they believe that your actions are dangerous not only to yourself, but other road users, so the rules of law works. Yet, in our society, when you commit a crime, rather than getting punished to serve as a deterrent, you beg or bribe your way out of the problem. So this attitude we have and the way we think make us poor because when rules are not followed in a society, it cannot be prosperous.
We also have a consumption mentality, from tooth pick to tooth paste we import. It is only by creating value that societies thrive. We also like shortcuts, we believe in get rich quick schemes. That is why people fall for MMM, Umana-umana and other Ponzi schemes. When you understand that it takes vision, hard work and diligence to generate wealth, then you know that shortcuts do not work and if they do, they are not legitimate. We like free things, otherwise known as Awoof. In fact, we have a saying that “Awoof no they run belle”, direct translation means that if you get free food to eat, you can eat as much as you like because it would not run your stomach. But nothing is further from the truth; certainly free things can have negative consequences and may not really be free. See what the Bible says in Proverbs 23:1-3 “While dining with a ruler, pay attention to what is put before you. If you are a big eater, put a knife to your throat; do not desire all the delicacies, for he might be trying to trick you.”
Never think that your destiny is in another person’s hands, Jeremiah 17:5 says – “This is what the Lord says: ‘Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. 6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”
So wealth is in the mind, trust God and think wealthy. Have a blessed day. God bless.
