Proverbs 10:4 “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.”
Proverbs 13:4 “The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.”
Proverbs 14:23 “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”
It is clear from Scripture that God wants his followers to be diligent, hard-working, purposeful, and even practical regarding the stewardship of resources. Before the Fall, God made man to work, care for, and rule over the earth: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15). This is part of our original calling and we can expect that work – joyous, purposeful, profitable work – will be a way we enjoy and glorify God in the new heavens and new earth of the future. To lose the motivation for work is to lose more than money; it is to lose much of what it means to truly live. This, in part, is the tragedy of government handouts and the idle young men I see hanging out, jobless and brooding, even as open job postings go unfilled.
Father, thank you for your patience in teaching me to be diligent when I might have been unmotivated and irresponsible in other circumstances. Please transform the direction in this country which is currently dehumanizing many of its citizens in the name of social justice.