Olonitola Olatokunbo
See thou a man diligent in his work… he will surely stand before kings and not mean men. prov 22: 29
I came across a line in a note which says ‘God is a business man and he doesn’t deal with lazy people…’
Then it goes on to point out that God didn’t give the talent he took from the lazy man to the man who doubled 2 talents, but he gave it to the man who doubled 5 talents…. Why would he do that??… Because he wants more profits… who doesn’t???
Yet this got me thinking… Really thinking… and still thinking…
Hard work may not be one of the fruit of the Spirit but it is one attribute God possess and if we must be like him, we must work hard…. Jesus said “My Father is always working, and so am I” (John 5:17)
I searched the scriptures if I could find a single example of a lazy man God used and I realized God rather prefers a man who is hard working although he may be doing the wrong thing… at least he can help him channel his energy aright… than a man who knows the right thing but is lazy… he’ll rather use a man busy doing the wrong thing than one busy doing nothing….
So, I studied some examples of men God called and the similarities in their identities. They were busy doing something.
Moses was tending his father in law sheep, although he had suffered disappointments and discouragements, he wasn’t mopping around, when God called him.
David was tending his father’s sheep in the wilderness, yet God sent for him in his obscurity.
God found Saul of Tarsus’ devoted passion appealing though wrongly channeled; he had to be used… and notice here that he used the same energy and even more by the grace of God upon him to work more than all other apostles.
Even Samuel who was sleeping when God called him was still busy opening and closing the door of the tabernacle. Trust me, God has no dealings with lazy men… he simply has no use for them.
I hear people say there is no work but I beg to disagree. There may not be many jobs available, but there are lots of works to be done so get busy. Do something and stop lazing around.
God said I will bless the work of your hand… it means, if you don’t have a work of your hand, no matter how much God wants to bless you, he can only bless nothing. .. Back in elementary schools, we learnt that zero multiplied by anything; no matter how big the number is, amount to ZERO.
Wrong conception
There was the story of a man, who was so poor and can’t even afford to feed his family, yet he wouldn’t work or wants his wife to work because he believed God has not called him to secular jobs, yet he prefers to beg from other believers. Now, that is not spiritual in my opinion, but rather it is a total display of ignorance of the word of God, because James 2:17 says “Faith without work is dead”.
God is not against a man having a job
Men are called into every facet of life. Just like God called a man to be a full time pastor, evangelist or missionary, he also called some to be a banker, an engineer, a doctor, a teacher, He also called some to be bakers, tailors, hairdressers, carpenters just to mention but a few…. not all men will work in the white collar organizations, not all men will hold the microphones and stand on a well-furnished platform, in a fully air conditioned room; some are meant to get dirty with their hands and still be fulfilling purpose.
So here are few tips to help you get started.
- Learn a skill: you don’t have a job yet, don’t worry, just go out and learn a skill, get training, learn something and be useful to yourself and your community. There are lots of skills to be learnt and developed.
- Volunteer somewhere: everybody likes free labour; someone who gets a job done without costing them anything. No one can really resist when you ask to give your voluntary service without pay…. but while at it, do a good job…you may just get retained.
- Give free services: you have a skill for doing something, yet no one is calling you. you can sing, bake, decorate, paint, make hair or any other skill you have, yet no one is giving you contracts; identify someone that needs it, give free service to the person and do an excellent job at it, even if you don’t get paid, someone may like it, you can get referred and next time, you will definitely get paid for it.
- Be excellent: you say you don’t know what you should be doing now, no problem, do whatever your hands find doing (as far as it’s not illegal) and do it well. Let excellence be your watch word. Don’t get too spiritual about things, just do a good job. Even Jesus was a carpenter before he commence full time ministry.
Col 3: 23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
This is the secret to making something that seemingly look small look grand… by putting all your energy and channeling your passion to that which your hands find doing, you can make a huge thing out of it and be of great blessing to people around you.
There was a time when cooking was just a hobby, culinary is one of the best course studied at schools now. Even buying and selling has taking on a new name; please make good use of your social media and stop burning data to watch other people glow…. you are not that useless, you must have at least one talent you call hobby, put it to use…and it will bring you great gain…
The gift of a man makes way for him. Prov 18:16
So my final advice for you my friend, get BUSY!!!
