“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” Proverbs 10:4 NIV
“Effort, not excuse, rewards you with success.”
My thoughts today are about “a Godly work ethic.”
When Gayle and I were first married I learned a valuable lesson from an insurance salesman. When pressed to make a decision, I gave an excuse. Finally, I deferred the decision with the lame explanation that I would think about the matter when I had more time and was not so busy. As he gathered his book and papers, he simply said, “Busy people make time for things that are important to them.” He didn’t make a sale that day, but I have benefited from his practical observation ever since.
How you spend your time has everything to do with what you can accomplish of value and worth. Effort, not excuse, rewards you with success. I have observed a growing lack of what previous generations called “a strong work ethic.” That kind of work ethic is born out of an understanding that you give a good day’s work for a fair wage – you expect only what you have worked for.
Today, people of all ages too often seem to assume and expect reward that is not commensurate with their effort. Maybe it’s the effect of the unprecedented affluence people take for granted. People today enjoy a measure of wealth our grandparents never knew. Wages are higher; homes are bigger; cars more expensive, lifestyles more lavish; health and fitness poorer; stress higher, and credit cards make it all so easy. People expect that they are owed every convenience and luxury with neither the effort nor the sacrifice to achieve it.
The Bible offers a great promise, “The Lord will send a blessing on . . everything you put your hand to.” Deuteronomy 28:8 NIV. Notice where God commands blessing? Your hand of diligent effort has to be where you want God’s hand of unconstrained blessing to come. God’s, as well as others’, blessings come when and where you put forth your best, diligent effort. Give God something to bless and multiply.
I have worked in one form or another since I was a young teen, like most others of my generation learned to do – as a janitor at my Dad’s small church, pumping gas at my grandfather’s truck stop during summers, washing dishes at a Saturday lunch counter and tending a drug store counter evenings after school. Through college, I delivered prescription drugs to homes and hospitals, worked at a steel mill and in construction during summers, and as a second-shift janitor at a manufacturing plant when first married. I have now served as pastor at three congregations since 1963. I am certainly no workaholic, but I hope others know me for my Godly work ethic.
My Dad taught me that honest work is noble and no job is either less or more worthy than another, so give your best every time. Any opportunity deserves your best effort and your whole-hearted contribution, for you work not for pay alone, nor only for your business or employer.
As a Christ-follower, you are to give your best in His service and for His recognition and reward. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23 NIV.
Life as never meant to be without work; God established that in Eden. Your Creator knew that a great deal of your personal satisfaction, self esteem, and pride of accomplishment will come from your sense of a job well done. That’s how Jesus will greet and welcome you home one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” That should tell you something about the value of a Godly work ethic in God’s estimation.
My prayer for you today is that your greatest joy will be found in the job well done.