Benjamin Franklin said, “Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues. Be active in business, that temptation may miss her aim. The bird that sits is easily shot. John Bunyan said, “An idle man’s brain is the devil’s workshop.”

Get away from that TV set, the video games, worthless novels and just lounging around. There’s got to be something you can do to bring in some money to help pay the bills. You cannot steer a vehicle that is not moving. Abraham’s servant said, “I being in the way, the Lord led me…” (Genesis 24:27)

During the great depression, multitudes were out of work and would do anything to have just enough money to eat. My father took a job provided by the government in New Zealand of using a shovel and wheelbarrow to move one mountain of sand a few yards away to make another mountain of sand! Just think how demeaning that must have been, but it was work and a little money for which he was most thankful.

It is not right to sit around hoping that people will feel sorry for you. It is not right to bludge on people and always be looking for handouts. God did not create man to live like this. This is what the devil wants you to do. God wants us to work with all our might. This means to put everything you have into it.

Who would want to watch a ball game where the teams play with the same slack standard that so many work with these days? Not me, that’s for sure! People will pay a lot of money to see excellence. God will see to it that you will be rewarded for doing things with all your might.

Our text also states that “there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” Jesus said in John 9:4, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” Our sojourn on earth is designed by God to be the period for work. The grave and thereafter is known as the time of rest and reward. Someone has said that life was not meant to be a bed of roses, but I say that if we put all our might into what we do, we can save our lives and the lives of our family from becoming a bed of thorns.

The words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant… enter thou into the joy of thy lord” will never be said to the idle or the slack. Life on this earth is brief but if we work with all our might for our Creator, earning, providing, giving and being an example to our children as well as others, we will receive an eternal reward from the one who alone is called, Faithful and True, the One who “works in you both to will and to work on behalf of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

Get ready for the next episode

COLIN CAMPBELL

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Colin does not have time to dialogue on the computer, but is open to take phone calls. Phone: 615 948 5958