Part 6
(Proverbs 4:7 TLB) Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do! And with your wisdom, develop common sense and good judgment.
Knowledge is having knowledge and knowing some principles – wisdom is the ability to apply to your life.
Treat wisdom like a friend that stands beside you.
Proverbs 27:6 NLT Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.
If a friend can speak to you and be faithful by wounding you and bringing correction, then so should the Word of God and wisdom be able to wound you like a friend. Wouldn’t you rather a friend tell you the honest truth and have it hurt than have the flattery of an enemy.
Wisdom is going to be brutally honest.
I believe the missing key for most of us to enjoy the prosperity of the Lord, is something very small; a minor adjustment.
Proverbs speaks of being lazy or laziness 17 times.
What does being lazy mean?
Matthew Henry: The slothful desire the gains the diligent get, but hate the pains the diligent take; therefore they have nothing.
Am I Lazy?
- Lazy people never rise to the top.
(Proverbs 12:24 TLB) Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and never succeed.
Going over and above the norm is what will produce promotion.
Set goals and compete with yourself.
(Matthew 5:41 NKJV) And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
Roman soldiers could require someone standing on the side of the road to help them carry their armor and belongings one mile.
- Lazy people irritate their superiors.
(Proverbs 10:26 GNB) Never get a lazy person to do something for you; he will be as irritating as vinegar on your teeth or smoke in your eyes.
- Lazy people always have good intentions, even many desires, but no initiative.
(Proverbs 13:4 NLT) Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.
(Proverbs 21:25 NLT) Despite their desires, the lazy will come to ruin, for their hands refuse to work.
- Lazy people are always bouncing from one crisis to another.
(Proverbs 15:19 NKJV) The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, But the way of the upright is a highway (higher path).
The thorns hurt because they are bouncing around from one thing to another.
- Lazy people are wasteful.
(Proverbs 12:27 NLT) Lazy people don’t even cook the game they catch, but the diligent make use of everything they find.
- Lazy people always have an excuse for their laziness.
It is never their fault. They always have an excuse.
(Proverbs 26:13 TLB) The lazy man won’t go out and work. “There might be a lion outside!” he says.
(Proverbs 26:13 MSG) Loafers say, “It’s dangerous out there! Tigers are prowling the streets!” and then pull the covers back over their heads.
I Am Diligent!
Diligence – constant and earnest effort to accomplish what needs to be done.
The greatest asset in the life of prosperity is having the attitude of hard work and diligence.
The diligent person is not a workaholic but is a smart worker.
- Diligent people always rise to the top.
(Proverbs 12:24 NLT) Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave.
(Proverbs 22:29 AMP) Do you see a man diligent and skillful in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
- Diligent people have goals and a strategy on how to reach them.
(Proverbs 24:27 NLT) Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.
- Diligent people are always looking at things to see how they can cause it to work and produce for them.
(Proverbs 21:5 AMP) The thoughts of the [steadily] diligent tend only to plenteousness, but everyone who is impatient and hasty hastens only to want.
They are asking the question, “How can I prosper from this?” rather than, “How can I get out of this?”
With the diligent person, it begins with their thoughts.
- Diligent people are prepared for the future.
A diligent person puts his best into his future.
(Proverbs 6:6-8 NLT) Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! (7) Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, (8) they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
The ant knows how to work hard but also knows how to work with nature and gets things to work for him.
- Diligent people will prosper.
(Proverbs 10:4 NKJV) He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.
(Proverbs 13:4 NLT) Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.