Work, Work, Work

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
WORK, WORK, WORK
Prov 6:6-11
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — 11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
NIV
I have heard people; I know believers who quote this verse to justify the investing and the hoarding of what wealth they have. But I fear they have misused this and have taken it completely out of the context of the whole of God’s plan for man. There are simply way too many other teachings about hoarding, storing up riches here in this world for the later years of life, for this verse to teach the exact opposite. In fact if I were to look to the ant to see how it stores up food, it does not store it up for the winter because it sleep all winter, and has not need of food. The ant eats all the food it stores before the winter, because it will rot in storage otherwise. No, it is all about each man doing his part in being a member of the body of Christ working diligently for the benefit of all, and for the kingdom. It is all about not having a task master, but doing because that is what should be done. It surely also speaks to the issue of working and providing for the family, but that is if I look at it from strictly a worldly view, and I should not be dependent on others to provide my needs of life, but work myself for them, yet in the spiritual sense that flies in the face of my dependence on God to provide my every need. No, this is about gathering for the Kingdom of God, not sitting back in old age and folding my hands resting on all the work I have done in the past, laying up my hard work so I can bring that out when I need to. “See how much I use to do” is not the optimum statement of any believer. I cannot sit back; I cannot store up my good deeds, and hang them out for all to see how much I have done. I must continue to labor for the Kingdom, I must work while I am alive and able to gather in the spiritual food needed for the time I am awake, for when I fall asleep, when I die, I have not further need of this food. How poor is the soul who is still alive, while looking to what he has stored up for his own benefit. The ways of the world has overtaken him, like a bandit and stolen his benefit. It is as if some believers have already fallen asleep, while there is still spiritual food to gather. I will not, I will work, work, work until the day God decides I must sleep.