Posted on 08/12/2019 5:42:25 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth: and the recompence of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him” (Proverbs 12:14).
“A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth,” It’s satisfying to be a witness. It's satisfying to testify for the Lord. It is satisfying to stand up against majority opinion sometimes to say what's right.
“. . . and the recompense of a man’s hands shall be rendered unto him,” this kind of gets back to what was stated back in verse 11, “He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread.” In other words, a man that’s working hard doesn't need a T-bone steak to satisfy him, because he's hungry enough to eat beans. Now, you have to believe that. If there is not a God, if the evolutionists are right; then what you do with your hands can be nothing but a waste. And if there is no guide or controller, if there is nobody that recognizes the sowing of the seed and then recompenses you for that seed; that labor, then it's all a waste. But we do have a God.
It is true that sometimes it seems that for long seasons we work and work and work and do something and do something; we pray and pray and pray and read and read and read and memorize and memorize and memorize as we pour our energy into our kids, and correct and teach and instruct and encourage, or you've been praying for a friend for just about forever and for as long as you can remember and you've been trying to lead her or him to Jesus Christ and all those sort of things and nothing happens.
Well, according to the Scriptures, you are going to have to trust God for some things and you're going to have to trust God for your labor; and this goes all the way from secular labor—just the guy welding or tightening lug nuts or whatever he does—all the way to actually doing something spiritual for the Lord. It says that “the recompense of a man’s hands shall be rendered unto him.”
We need to do something. We need to have something to do in life, and then we need to have something to do for the Lord. What we do in life should be for the Lord. If a man is tightening lug nuts for a living; then that may not seem like much, but on top of that he needs to do something for the Lord. There are juveniles he can work with, there are nursing homes he can visit, and there are hospital visits he can make.
There are doors a man can knock, there are letters he can write, there are calls he can make. We need to do something for the Lord so that the Lord can recompense you for the labor of your hands.
“Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee” (Psalms 128:1-2).
This is something that is sometimes missed in New Testament Christianity. It's kind of funny how these welfare state politicians are always dragging the charitable nature of Christianity into things, like it's some sort of Christian manifesto that everybody should have plenty of money in their pocket.
People use God just like they use everything else to drag the church into political issues and so somewhere along the way we forgot a few things, and one of them is that Christians are supposed to work too. It is Christian to work. Christians ought to work as hard, if not harder, than anyone else. Paul wrote: “And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it” (I Corinthians 4:12).
And that is not all: “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28).
If I were you, I wouldn't break my neck trying to retire at 45. What are you go do after you retire? Sit around and morph into an old fat guy? Become a diabetic?
“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing” (I Thessalonians 4:11-12).
Sometimes Christians need to be reminded that they were called to work hard, and not necessarily be rich in this world, but be rich toward God and God back toward us.
In other words, Paul is telling believers to mind your own business and to a work with your own hands and the Lord will bless the labor of your hands.
“A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth: and the recompence of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him” (Proverbs 12:14).
Let’s read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let’s keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread!
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