Peter Horrobin

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.”

Proverbs 10:4,5, NIV

I was recently reading about a man who, at the age of sixty, heard that he might have a terminal condition. Instead of bemoaning his misfortune, he resolved to work harder than ever to do those things which mattered most to him before he died! In the following years he wrote many books and achieved a great deal. At the age of 92 he was still writing, having long since seen off his supposed terminal condition! He was definitely not lazy and he became very wealthy as a result of all the work he did.

There is no doubt that the Scripture for today is true – hard work and diligence do bring reward and wealth, especially when what you do is under the leadership of God’s Holy Spirit, properly applied with wisdom. Laziness is something that is universally condemned throughout the Scriptures. Paul was very blunt in his letter to the Thessalonians when he said, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).

There are seasons of harvest in all of our lives, when things have built up to a point of fulfilment – and that is definitely not a season to take time off, for then the crop will not be reaped and poverty will result. But it is also true, that if the ground is not properly prepared and the seed is sown, there will not be any harvest at all! So, in every stage of life there is work to do because there is a purpose to fulfil.

And this is just as true in terms of the spiritual work that we do for the Kingdom of God. I was part of the team that worked behind the scenes to prepare for the last major mission that Billy Graham led in the UK. It was called Mission England. There was a great harvest of people who gave their lives to the Lord at the events, which were the spiritual equivalent of a farmer’s harvest crop. But those who worked behind the scenes had been working incredibly hard preparing the ground, for at least three years, making sure that every single detail had been thought through in advance of the time of harvest. Lives were changed and transformed at harvest time because the ‘farmers’ had been doing their work.

There is no shortage of work we can do for the Kingdom of God – let us do it with all our hearts knowing that the size and the quality of the harvest depends on the bit we do!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for the warnings of Scripture not be lazy. Forgive me, Lord, for times in my life when I have been deliberately lazy. Help me to be wise at every stage of my life and to learn Your wisdom about the things you want me to do – and then to do them with all my heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“Do not accuse a man for no reason – when he has done you no harm”

Proverbs 3:30, NIV

Telling lies in order to accuse a person falsely is a heinous crime. Damaging the reputation of someone is an act of robbery of far more significance than stealing some of their goods – you are stealing their good name. Goods can be replaced, but when ‘mud’ has been thrown at someone by telling lies about them for some ulterior motive, the sad fact is that some of that ‘mud’ will stick in the minds of those who hear. They will think that there must be at last a grain of truth in what is being said, even if there isn’t!

Jesus suffered greatly from such false accusations. The words of the Pharisees, who concocted false stories about Him, would eventually be used to drive the nails through his hands and his feet when He was crucified. Yes, ruining someone’s reputation by false accusation is a serious sin – it’s like an act of murder.

We need to be very careful, therefore, when talking about others disrespectfully – and we need to be especially careful about pointing the finger at others when we are also guilty of what we are pointing out in others. Jesus hated and condemned such hypocrisy.
When the Pharisees brought the woman who had been caught in an act of adultery (John 8:3-11) to Jesus, to see if He would be true to the law of Moses and say she should be stoned to death, Jesus challenged the hearts of her accusers. He said something like, “OK, but only throw a stone if you are without sin!” Jesus knew what was in their hearts and that they had deliberately brought this woman to Jesus in order to try and trap Him. Their motives were evil.

If you’ve been falsely accused in a public place, you will know the pain that lying words can cause. There is only one remedy for the pain within – forgiveness and God’s inner comfort. Yes, they may not deserve to be forgiven – but Jesus died for our sins and we don’t deserve to be forgiven either! To speak out forgiveness of those who have accused us falsely is like cutting the ropes that have tied those false accusations to our heart.

And if we’ve been guilty of hypocritically speaking negatively about other people – when the things we are saying could just as easily be said of us – then it’s time for personal repentance, asking God for forgiveness and a change of heart.

Prayer: I am sorry, Lord, for the times when I have said wrong things about other people, for whatever reason. Please forgive me. And help me, Lord, to speak out my forgiveness of those who have hurt me with their false words. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

“When I was a boy in my father’s house, still tender and an only child of my mother, he taught me and said, ‘Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live.’”

Proverbs 4:3-4, NIV

I will never cease to be thankful for a Dad (and a Mum) who saw it as their loving duty to teach me the ways of the Lord when I was young – before I reached the impressionable teenage years when it is so easy for young people to go astray and, as they say, ‘do their own thing’. ‘Doing their own thing’ can be extremely risky, for having the developing physique and unbridled will of a young person, without the maturity of an adult can lead to making mistakes of life-long consequence.

When we learn to respect our elders, we will listen to what they have to say. And the wisdom that comes from their maturity, becomes the wisdom that will help young people negotiate the traps that the enemy never ceases to lay in the paths of young people. We live, however, in a generation when respect for the wisdom of our elders has been replaced by information acquired at the click of a mouse or via a mobile phone. And information, without the maturity and wisdom how to use that, will always be a massive trap for young people.

Such knowledge will never trump the spiritual wisdom the writer of these Proverbs is referring to. For this is the wisdom from the heart of God which God intended to be passed on from generation to generation.

As I thought about this I was overwhelmed with a sense of responsibility that parents, grand-parents, great grand-parents, uncles and aunts have to pray for and impart the wisdom of their years to the upcoming generations – giving them a chance to negotiate the pitfalls of life with the wisdom of the older generations to aid them on their journey. In so doing we will be equipping the young to enter into their destiny in God and who knows what blessing there will be down the years as a result!?

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for all those who have imparted the wisdom of God into my life. Help me to exercise my own spiritual responsibility by imparting Your Wisdom to the children and young people who are part of my wider family. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV

The leaning tower of Pisa, in Italy, is very unstable. When people first see the structure they are amazed that it is still standing! Massive amounts of careful engineering work have been necessary to preserve this iconic structure which attracts tourists from all over the world. It is a massive money earner for Italy. But it is not what the architect intended! It leans because the ground on which it is built was too soft on one side of the structure. It is quite literally leaning according to its own understanding of weight, pressure and gravity!

If the ground on which we build our lives is not firm, then we, too, will lean according to our own understanding and go our own way. It is absolutely vital that we follow the advice of our Scripture for today and ‘Trust in the Lord’. Only He knows everything about us and our circumstances and only He is able to direct our steps according to His plans and purposes for our lives. When we begin to lean according to our own understanding, independently of God, our lives will soon become distorted and no longer be upright. That is why we are seeing such extremes of ungodliness in society. And just like the cost of propping up the leaning tower of Pisa has been massive, so is the societal cost when people ignore God’s Word and do their own thing.

To trust in the Lord means to depend on Him totally and not on our own seemingly good, but ungodly, ideas. Our Scripture for today stresses that we should trust Him with ALL of our heart – not just that ‘religious bit’ which we are happy for him to have, provided we can keep hold of the rest!

God’s promises to those who do trust Him in this way are many and wonderful – including the one we read here that He will help us walk on straight paths – or, as I learned it in the Authorised Version, “He will direct your paths.” Many is the time when I have sensed God bringing correction into my life so that the path I was walking on would remain straight and many are the times, also, when I have sensed Him directing my paths so that I would know His will for the next stage of my life. I am so grateful to God for His wisdom – it is beyond human understanding.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to trust You at all times and to look for Your clear direction in my life. I pray that You will direct my steps so that the paths I walk on will be those You have prepared for me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

”In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead . . . As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

James 2:17 and 26

The Bible has a way of cutting through all the spiritual junk which sometimes surrounds our lives and getting to the nub of a situation or problem in a few uncompromising and deeply challenging words. None of us needs to use much imagination to know what a dead human body looks like – totally lifeless, without response and completely incapable of doing anything. And that is exactly the image which James uses to stir his readers, by saying that unless your faith leads to a changed life, as evidenced by the actions which result from your beliefs, then you are just like a dead body – lifeless!

We are definitely not ‘saved’ by our deeds, for our salvation is entirely the gift of God, an act of grace and mercy, as Paul expressed it so clearly in Ephesians Chapter 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” But then he went on to say in verse 10, “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” So there we have it, salvation is a gift, but once having received such a wonderful gift, God looks for the fruit (the good works) which He prepared in advance for us to do, which will witness into a fallen world about the truth and love of God and help build His Kingdom.

We each have a part to play – and if there is no evidence of the faith we profess, as expressed by the works we do as a result of having faith, then there is only one conclusion – our faith isn’t real and as far as God is concerned we are as lifeless (spiritually) as a dead body is physically!

I pray that today the Lord will speak into your heart about both the faith you possess and the works that God has called you to do. I was impacted as a child by the song “there’s a work for Jesus none but you can do” As a ‘not-so young’ child of God I still remember and believe those words and am still impacted and challenged by the call to action that our faith demands.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for the extraordinary gift of salvation that, in Your mercy, You gave to all those who believe. Help me, Lord, today, to rise to the challenge of walking in obedience to Your call upon my life to do the works that You have prepared in advance for me to do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.