Power to Get Wealth – Proverbs 14:23-24

She was sleeping in her car on the Kroger parking lot, leaning her seat all the way back so no one could see her.  Drug addiction had left her homeless.  The Kroger manager noticed her and encouraged her to attend a job fair and helped her fill out the application online.  When her application was approved this same manager hired her to work there at Kroger’s.  She now has been able to afford an apartment.  “She’s a fantastic worker, I wish I had 120 of her,” says the manager.

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the folly of fools brings folly. (Proverbs 14:23–24, ESV)

When I was a kid my dad made me and my brother mow the lawn during summer months.  He didn’t pay us.  I might not have complained about it as much if he had.  But in that process I profited.  I learned how to do the yard and make it look good and to this day I get satisfaction from mowing my yard.  I could probably afford to hire someone and in days to come it might require that, but there is something good about seeing your work produce order and beauty.

I’m sure I’ve also talked about projects or work opportunities that have never gone beyond talk and if it wasn’t for the job I’ve had, at which I have toiled, it would only come to poverty.  Words have power, but only action leads to real change.  God commanded us to work six days, like He worked, and the wise honor Him and mimic Him as workers, and the icing on the cake is often wealth.

Wealth brings with it problems.  We find it easier to trust in our wealth than to trust in God.  We become fools when we do that and our folly in that regard only brings more folly.  Yahweh warned the Israelites:

[11] “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, [12] lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, [13] and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, [14] then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, [15] who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, [16] who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. [17] Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ [18] You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:11–18, ESV)

Lord, teach me to acknowledge that You give me power to get wealth through work, that you give me the health and intelligence to work and create wealth, and that it is not all because of me.  I don’t want to forget you, Lord.