Proverbs 13:11
Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall have increase.
…He that gathereth by labor shall increase. This word labor literally means “hand”— working with your own hand. Have you ever heard someone say “get your own”, not always in a mean spirited way of being selfish, but encouraging you to have your own resources. God is very much like this. He wants to give us our own testimony; our own increase, wealth, spirituality. He promises that if we labor, we will have increase.
Often we dislike people who jump in the video after the work is already done. I don’t believe God cares for this attitude either. God honors burdens and hard labor, working. The first part of the scripture deals with getting wealth the wrong way. It will not be permanent if gotten the wrong way. Good ends never justify wrong means. Years ago, the Lord showed me a scripture about getting something you want the wrong way. As a convert, I tried to rationalize how this could work but God showed me this scripture:
Ezekiel 22:13: Behold, therefore, I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made...
Just “smitten” and “dishonest gain” jumped out from the page. I left that idea alone. The idea of the original Hebrew language is that God caused something to happen to the person’s new found wealth. When people are greedy, they will not hold onto their gain long.
Bernard Madoff, made off with $50 billion but only for a space of time.
The next time you think about cheating someone to get an extra buck, think about this.
~Let’s Live Holy~
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