Day 14 - Not Working Is Not Equal To ‘Living by Faith’

     I once met a man who listened to very, very little teaching on faith principles and therefore had no solid foundation in the Word. At the time, he had told dozens of people that he was believing God for a brand-new, fully loaded, red Porsche 911 with cream leather interior. He said he was making faith confessions for the sports car. But even if the Lord had sent someone to this man’s house with the title and the keys to a Porsche 911, the man wouldn’t have been able to pay for the gas to drive it! That doesn’t even take into consideration the extremely high cost of insurance, tags, taxes, tires, and maintenance for such an

expensive car. The silly thing about this situation was that this man hadn’t had a job in two years! He claimed that God was doing a new thing by providing him with a Porsche 911 while he just “lived by faith.”

     But the man’s assertion that God was doing a “new thing” was actually just an excuse for pure laziness. God believes in diligent work.

PROVERBS 10:4 - Lazy hands make a man poor: but diligent hands bring wealth.

PROVERBS 13:4 - The sluggard craves and gets: but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.

     If you sit on your couch day after day refusing to go to work, I guarantee you that you won’t end up driving an expensive car. That would be a breach in the ethic of work, a divine avenue of increase. Everyone needs to not only work in some capacity, but to be diligent at it.

Gather the Manna

     Even if God rained manna out of the sky for us, He would still expect us to work to collect it, mold it into cakes, and bake it.

     When God provided manna from Heaven for the children of Israel, they didn’t even know it was a God-sent blessing at first. Moses had to tell the people of God to go to work gathering the manna (Exod. 16:15,16)!

     Well, just like the children of Israel, many people today are sometimes unaware of a divine blessing because it involves work. They think that God doesn’t ever require work as a means to receive His blessings.

Let Down the Nets

     Even if God gives a net breaking, ship sinking, boat load of fish it requires work. I want to remind you of Peter’s financial miracle in Luke 5:1-8. Jesus filled his boat and his partner’s boat. Taking the boat out takes work. Putting the nets out takes work. Gathering the fish takes work. Pulling the fish to shore takes work. Cleaning the fish takes work. Marketing the fish takes work. Selling the fish takes work. It takes work to turn fish into payroll or rent money.

     God planned for work to be means of resources from the very beginning. No one is excused from that principle; everyone has a responsibility to work, whether it’s performing necessary chores at home or laboring in the workplace.

     Work not only nurtures the health of your soul; it also brings increase to many other areas of life. The hand of the diligent makes rich — so whatever work you find to do, do it with all your might!