The blessing of the Lord brings wealth without painful toil for it.
Proverbs 10:22
Recently, I met a 72-year-old man who, at his age, still works every day in construction. The man showed me his hands and shared how difficult it is to work construction at his age. Unfortunately, he still must work because his social security check does not cover his and his wife's bills.
Seeing how tired he looked broke my heart, and I can only imagine how much his body ached. This encounter made me think about my parents, for even though they are older than this person, they were able to retire relatively young. My parents don't speak English and barely finished the third grade. In their youth, they worked as hard as the man I met, but it is evident that God's blessing is upon their lives.
King Solomon tells us that the blessing of God brings wealth to us without hardship or struggle. Notice that the wealth the blessing of God brings does not come without us working. That is not what God is promising here. The promise of God is that wealth will come to us without bitterness or sadness.
The blessing of God makes our work a joy. The blessing of God takes us to places where the grace of God will help us accomplish things we could not accomplish without it. The blessing of God puts us before people who can open great doors for us. The blessing of God gives us the favor to get raises. The blessing of God puts us in places where our work is valued.
The best part of the blessing of God is that it doesn't depend on anything but the goodness of God. It doesn't run out because we grow older, weaker, or less capable. It doesn't leave us when we fail. It doesn't depend on our intellect, experience, or education. No, my dear readers, the blessing of God, according to Salomon, comes to the wise who walk in integrity before the Lord.
I do not know the type of life the man I met had, but I know my parent's lives. I know they walked with integrity. Seeing how God cares for them inspires me to live with integrity. This week, I am asking you to pray for that man and his wife, who desperately need God's blessing, and for God to help all of us walk with integrity. May the blessing of God bring us all wealth without painful toil every day of our lives.
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