One of the things I love about the Psalms is that they are full of insights into the plans of God, like these verses from Psalm 115:13-15:
He will bless those who fear the Lord,
Both small and great.
May the Lord give you increase more and more,
You and your children.
May you be blessed by the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
This is a declaration of blessing that was applicable to Israel… but also for God’s children in any generation.
And I want to draw your attention to these words right in the middle of what we read: “May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children.”
Increase is God’s will for His people.
He wants to give you more peace, more wisdom, more spiritual discernment and sensitivity, more strength, more influence, more joy, more faith, more love, more favor, and more material resources.
Now, it would’ve been great if the verse just said, “May God increase you,” or even if it said, “God increase you more.” But it says, “May God increase you more and more.” More and more!
The book of Genesis declares that God made man and woman in His own image. And then God blessed them, and He said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion” (Genesis 1:28). The word multiply is the same Hebrew word translated as “increase” throughout the Old Testament.
This wasn’t merely a command to have children and begin to populate the world. It was multidimensional. When God told them to be fruitful and increase, it had to do with their emotions, their spiritual life, their influence, their understanding. Increase was God’s plan all the way back to the garden of Eden. That was God’s plan for His family, and He has never changed that plan.
Now, very briefly, I want to give you an area of promised growth: wisdom and understanding.
Proverbs 1:5 says, A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.
God wants us to increase in knowledge and in wisdom and in understanding, but we have to be willing to hear, otherwise we are nothing but fools (Proverbs 1:7, 22). So when you’re looking to increase in understanding, ask yourself, “Am I listening?”
God’s promise to help us increase in wisdom is just one of His promises of increase to us. There is so much more that God wants to do to expand your life and fill it with good things.
So I want to encourage you to seek the increase that God wants to give you as His dearly loved child. And one great place to start is to study the wisdom of Proverbs and then listen for what God is teaching you.
I am certain that as you spend time in His Word, He will honor your search and give you increase in both knowledge and wisdom, so that you can grow not only in those things, but also in faith, love, joy, and influence.
I pray that God will work powerfully in you, stirring you to action to prepare for the increase He wants for you. I also invite you to pray for those we are reaching together around the world through Answers with Bayless Conley, that they will hear God and come to faith in our living Jesus.
