Prosperity on The Rock
Canvas: 24” x 30”
Date: July 18th, 2021
[Not For Sale]
And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. –2 Corinthians 9:8 [NASB]
I woke up this Sunday morning, July 18th 2021, with a Gospel song playing in my head—I Will Call Upon The Lord with the lyrics, “The Lord liveth and blessed be The Rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted!” Later, at Prayer House Sanctuary, I didn’t have a clue what to paint. The worship began and the first song was…yes, you guessed it…I Will Call Upon the Lord! Tears filled my eyes as I imagined a sturdy rock in the ocean with waves crashing into it—a stormy sky looming overhead but light breaking through from behind and overtaking the darkness.
Pastor Reggie Trotter then delivered a passionate sermon about God desiring to pour out prosperity into our lives—how God wants to rescue us from the hurricanes of life—how God will make springs of Living Water burst forth from within us give life to others. But we fixate on the temporary things like the Phoenix Suns losing game 5 of the 2021 NBA finals (ouch!) or we fixate on news and information—grasping for a sense of control and getting only anxiety. But we forget who won even last year’s NBA Championship and anxiety over world events never solves anything. We have so much anxiety, we end up feeling less in control, and our prosperity gets choked off.
So, what is prosperity exactly? Is it having food, a house, and nice things? Yes and No—at the end of it all, there is no point to having things or living long healthy lives without God. Real prosperity is experiencing the very life of Jesus Christ vibrating in and through us, renewing our minds, and filling us with faith, peace, hope and love.
Now, look closely and you’ll see the figure of a person standing on the Rock—Jesus—covered in vibrant green moss and stained bright red by his blood. Is it Abraham? Moses? You? It is everyone who has faced darkness, loss, heartbreak, and disease, by standing on God’s forever faithfulness to us!