Work In Fear And Faith

We often unintentionally block financial blessings by letting fear keep us from trying or by placing our faith in things other than God and His promises. The story of Isaac's first harvest gives us an example of how hard work done in faith can put us in a position to receive God's blessing. This article reveals the rewards God has established and promised for those who work hard...and those who don't.

Faith Receiving A Blessing: A story that took place thousands of years ago still has application to all of our lives, today. "Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him." Genesis 26:12 When did Isaac receive the blessing? After he acquired the land, cleared the land, prepared the soil, planted the crops, watered the crops, kept the weeds out, kept the pests away, tended the crops and harvested the crops. How much would the Lord have "blessed" him if he hadn't done the work? Given the other Scriptures on laziness being like theft and having food dependent on personal labor...not so much! It takes a bit of faith to work a whole year not knowing what you'll get paid, yet, that's the faith Isaac displayed before he received a bumper crop of blessing.

Fear Can Prevent Blessing: How does this apply to us, today? Some of us have too little faith. We believe we will not be blessed, so we aren't willing to do the work. This is fear...thinking all is lost and hopeless. It's possible for anyone to experience this fear short-term, but long-term, this can lead to crippling anxieties and depression. No matter what we fear, we must force ourselves to begin working, in faith, to enable the financial blessing God wants to give us. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.

Misplaced Faith Can Prevent Blessing: Some of us have misplaced our faith by fooling ourselves into thinking we will be financially blessed even if we do little or no work. I call this faith in socialism, which is very popular nowadays, but has nothing to do with God. People who live like this are placing their faith in politicians and government, rather than God. Since governments are notoriously unreliable and social programs are always sub-standard, this is a very bad place to put our faith. Add to that the fact that God wants our faith in Him, and you get a sense of the real danger of putting faith elsewhere. Why would God bless us for putting our faith in something other than Him?

Work Is An Expression Of Faith: As James wrote, "faith without works is dead." Here's the problem...if we don't have enough faith to work hard, we've given God no opportunity to bless us financially. Today, many live on the production of others until 'just the right opportunity' comes along, but this isn't God's way. God has told us, whatever we do, to put our whole effort into it. It doesn't really matter what you're doing for a living as long as you're doing it with everything you've got. He has promised us that being lazy produces poverty and being diligent produces wealth. So, why would God bless us financially if we ignore His word on how to obtain that blessing? Do you think he would want us to make a liar out of Him?

It's the person of faith who, though he doesn't know what kind of harvest there will be, still puts his hand to the plow and moves forward without looking back. It's the person of faith who always goes the extra mile though he can't see the reward for doing so. It's these people who will receive the financial blessings of God, because they acted in faith. Faith is what pleases God.

So, just as with Isaac, financial blessing awaits those of us who work hard, relying on God to bring the harvest. If doubt or fear causes us not to try, if we place our faith in something other than God, or if we give less than our best effort to any work we can do, we block God's blessing and invite poverty into our lives. However, if we sow all our strength into whatever opportunities God puts in front of us, He has promised His financial blessing. When we work as hard as we can for a growing season or two, people may say of us, as they did Isaac, "he reaped a hundredfold because the Lord blessed him." Until we've worked that hard, our harvest will be just what was sown...if we're lucky.