Title: How Much Do You Value Your Work?
Text:
2 Thessalonians 3:6-9 (ESV)
6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you,
8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.
9 It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
Observation:
The Apostle Paul assigned a great value to the need for God's people to work. It's the way that God intends for us to provide for our needs. Those who do not work are asking for trouble.
It is not good for people to be idle. I remember a saying that I heard from my youth about the peril of idleness.
"Idle hands are the devil's workshop". Have you ever heard that saying? In his first letter to the Thessalonians Paul wrote this; and I quote only the part about idleness.
1 Thessalonians 4:10-11 (ESV)
10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,
11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,
What he warned them about in his first letter, he reminds them again in his second letter.
2 Thessalonians 3:11 (ESV)
11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.
Let's make it our prayer and our aim to always put a high value on work. It's God's will for all of us. It's the way of wisdom.
Proverbs 10:4 (ESV)
4 A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Proverbs 12:11 (ESV)
11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.
This is the bottom line:
Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Prayer:
Father, hallowed by Thy name. Father, I thank You for all of Your provisions for Your people. Father, I pray that You would create within each of us the desire to work heartily in everything we put out hands to do, and that in everything we will do it as unto the Lord. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Read the Daily Devotional by Herb Cotton; click here:
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