Have you ever chased a rainbow? When I was eight years old, someone told me that if I could get to the end of a rainbow, I’d find a pot of gold. That sounded pretty good to me! So I shared the news with all my neighborhood friends.

It was around the Fourth of July in 1959 when my first opportunity appeared—a beautiful rainbow in the western skies. I gathered up all my buddies, and we set out to find the gold. We all needed money to buy some fireworks for upcoming celebrations, and we figured this would be the quickest way.

The end of the rainbow looked like it was only a few blocks away, so we initiated our expedition. We crossed the busy street our parents told us never to cross. We cut through a car wash, marched through the back of the telephone property, through the park, and across the football field at the junior high school. It seemed as though that fickle rainbow was moving away from us as fast as we were walking toward it.

But we marched on with gold-dust fever.

Finally, when we reached the county airport—eight miles from home, the rainbow silently faded into the blue sky. Gone. We were disappointed that we missed finding that pot of gold.

We got in quite a bit of trouble with our parents over that adventure, but at least they explained to us that the “pot of gold” story was just a myth. All that work for a lie. What a let-down.

Lotteries, Casinos, and Schemes

Today many adult lives reflect my life as an eight-year-old. I was chasing a rainbow, but today they are chasing the lotteries, the casinos, and the greed-based get-rich-quick strategies that seem to come along in everybody’s life. The Bible has something to say about these schemes.

Proverbs 13:11 (NLT)
Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; Wealth from hard work grows.

God created you for outrageous wealth, but it won’t come from rainbows, lotteries, casinos, or schemes. It comes from power—the power God gives you to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Wealth Is a Blessing

Solomon said, “The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow to it (Proverbs 10:22). The word “rich” in the Hebrew language means “an accumulation of steadily growing wealth.” It’s speaking about material prosperity—yes, it’s talking about real hard-core riches; money. The word “sorrow” is translated as “struggle.” No struggle in growing wealthy!

If it’s true that the blessing of the Lord brings riches, then our key to wealth is not in searching for wealth directly, but in searching for ways to experience the blessing of the Lord. It’s the blessing of the Lord that makes a person rich. I don’t think anybody wants to be poor. Everybody has a built-in desire to be wealthy. God put that desire there just like He put other desires into the human soul.

Have you wondered why you can look at two men’s lives; both having worked thirty years at the same place, were paid the same amount of money, yet one ends up wealthy, and one ends up with barely enough to get by on? What’s the difference? It’s simple. It’s not how much money you make that determines whether or not you are wealthy, or will become wealthy. It is the blessing of the Lord and the activating of the power to get wealth that determines your financial destiny.

Some people know the right things to do to become radically wealthy. But knowing the right things will not bring you riches. It is doing the right things that speeds you up the road to radical riches. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. When you do the right things; take the right actions – that is called “wisdom.”

Wisdom says, “Those who love me inherit wealth, for I fill their treasuries” (Proverbs 8:21). We first learn to listen to God by listening to His Word, the Bible, then acting upon it. Are you prepared to enter into the place of radical wealth?