Mensa Otabil - Living Profitably (10/06/2025)
The beginning of the year is always a good time to recalibrate, put your life together, reorganize, and set your mind on a new target. That’s what we’ve been doing this week: looking at having a vision, setting priorities, examining our health, and reflecting on our relationships. Today, we are talking about living profitably because one of the important choices we have to make involves finances, especially as we begin a new year.
Isaiah 48:17 states, «The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, and the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.» God wants each one of us to live a profitable life; He desires our lives to be beneficial. He doesn’t want us to be liabilities, and when it comes to finances, that is one area where we all struggle to find the best balance between greed, good stewardship, and not dissipating the resources that God has given us. How do we meet the needs of our lives and pay the bills necessary for our existence?
God is interested in that aspect of our lives; He wants us to have a healthy financial life. We all use money as a medium of exchange; without it, our lives become a bit stressful, and most of life’s stresses are centered around money. God cares about your finances, and He wants you to live profitably. He desires you to do well; as you are prosperous and prosper in health, you must also prosper financially.
When you look through the Scriptures, God presents Himself as the true source of our wealth. He is not divorced from our wealth; He doesn’t just want us to live a spiritual life without caring about our health or wealth. He is interested in all of these aspects. It is clear in Scripture that God cares about every part of our lives, and there are teachings in the Scriptures that guide us when it comes to wealth creation. In this passage, God says that He teaches us to profit, and then He states that He teaches us the way we should go. God is a teacher. What does He teach us? He teaches us how to make profit with the talents, gifts, resources, time, and opportunities we have. He is able to guide us in the choices we need to make.
Making and managing wealth profitably requires more than just earning a lot of money, a high salary, or having a good education. Often, it is about the prudent management of resources, disciplined adherence to both spiritual and natural laws of management. I am going to walk you through a few principles you should commit to if you want to live profitably this year as a Christian.
Firstly, you must set aside money for God. Some call it tithing, some call it offering, and some call it first fruits, but whatever it is, if you recognize God as the source of your wealth, then He must have the first portion of what you have. So set money aside for the Lord. Secondly, you must be committed to diligent work. Work is ordained by God right from the Garden of Eden. Work hard and diligently, and you must constantly upgrade your skills to earn more money because we live in a world where knowledge gained today may be obsolete in the next five or ten years. What you know now may not be relevant five years from now, regardless of your profession, so you need to constantly improve yourself.
Self-improvement is critical. Additionally, we must learn to save wisely. If you’re going to give God 10% of your income as a minimum, then you must also save 10% for your future. This means you must commit to saving something for your future. If you work in a formal setting, your social security and pension fund must be things you pay attention to, as they are part of your wealth-creating portfolio. We must also understand how to invest wisely. Learn a bit about financial markets and how to use those opportunities to grow your money passively, ensuring that your money does not just lie dormant but works for you. Develop a long-term plan, and above all, seek God’s favor and pray for His guidance.
This year, we want you to prosper; we want you to have money, and I pray that God will place wealth in your hands as you follow these principles and apply them in your life. Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, I ask for financial wisdom. Teach me how to use my talents and opportunities profitably. In Jesus' name, Amen.
I will catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.