Thoughts for another day

December 30, 2008.

Today's verse: Ps. 127:2. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. (NASB)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

I speak to people and what I usually hear is the amount of trouble people go through in earning their living. There are many who are so obsessed with this that their lives comprise of nothing but worrying how bread will arrive in their homes in the morrow. When you ask some wise people, they’ll say, don’t you know you need to toil to make your family sufficient in food and in all things? Well, I know we need to work, for even the book of Proverbs says, if you don’t work and are lazy, your desires will not be met. But surprisingly, the Bible doesn’t provide a correlation to work and wealth. It talks of wisdom in working and herein, we get a clue about the ways of God, which our verse today refers to.

God it is who helps fill the stomach. Trust in God is essential to earning, not only livelihood but also gaining abundant wealth. We may try all sorts of means to get rich but it is of the Lord by which wealth is gained. No human endeavor can replace that. Even the heathen, are given their riches by the Lord and He it is who takes them away. So we find that those who are rich today in their very lifetimes become poor. But those who are loyal to God will have riches rained down upon them and they will not be taken away for generations until the recipients forsake their loyalty to God.

Simply speaking, our verse says that it is vain to rise up early and sleep late being engrossed in just the matter of gaining bread, for the Lord God in His mercy can give them to us even in sleep. Trust Him today and forget about where your next meal will come from, for even the birds of the air are fed by Him, so how much more will He feed you?