Daily Devotional by Pastor E. A. Adeboye
Topic: Stolen Bread?
Memorise: Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. –Proverbs 20:17
Read: Ephesians 4:28 (KJV)
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Bible in One Year: 1 Peter 1-4, Psalms 28
MESSAGE:
We live in a time when the nature of man is so selfish that all he does is think about himself continually. How much can I get? What will I gain? What do I have at stake? Of what interest will this be to me? This is why you see people transferring the resources meant for an entire nation into their private coffers. They are happy to collect the contract amount given for the construction of public roads only to complete such roads on paper alone. The better ones among them do a bad job and pocket the rest despite inflating the cost of completion. After all, they will not drive on such roads. When the Judgement of God comes upon those who do this, their ends are always terrible. Some of them use such monies to train their children in the best schools available and such children end up killing them. Some of them use such money to build estates and such estates become desolate in the future.
Lazy people look for any excuse not to work. They want cheap money. They want to live in luxury without paying the price. This is why you see a lot of value being eroded in the social system today. People are no longer ready to task their minds. Some people sit with their computers the whole day, looking for people to defraud. How do you think you can have an enduring blessing through such means? There are some market women who use unequal weights in the scale to measure what they sell to unsuspecting customers. If you do this, it is to your own peril. Such people will never be blessed by God. Some are involved in fraudulent business practices, exploiting others for their own gain. They think they are making it at the moment, but the truth is that such gains bring much sorrow. Lazy people who do not work will end in poverty because they lack understanding. Those who are sleeping when they should be working will end up serving those who are industrious.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” -Galatians 6:7
As long as you choose to remain lazy, you will never encounter a divine touch, because God himself is hard working. One of the great virtues that fathers can leave for their children is a heritage of integrity. There is only one path to true increase and that is gathering wealth by honest means. It may take a longer time than you expected, but you can be sure that at the end, you will have peace of mind. There are things money cannot buy. Money cannot buy happiness and joy and this is why you need to understand that there is no need to play smart. The little you earn from what you do legitimately will attract the blessing of God, as opposed to those who earn millions by fraudulent means. The scripture says;
“Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.” - Proverbs 28:6
Don’t envy sinners who are prosperous. It is foolishness to do so because you can easily tell what their end will be.
“Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.” - Proverbs 13:11
Those who gather wealth unjustly are doing so in readiness for devourers. They will never be able to explain how they spend such money.
Key Point: Whatever you get non-legitimately cannot last.
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