Proverbs 10:4-5 (NIV)

Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

Let’s break it down…

Lazy hands make for poverty,

Laziness equals poverty. Not just financial poverty, but spiritual poverty. Understand that poverty is not a number…it is a mindset. Someone can have very little and be incredible wealthy, yet someone can be incredibly wealthy, but very poor. Notice how the Bible says, “Lazy hands MAKE poverty…” Laziness produces a result…poverty. If one is unwilling to work for it, one will always be without it.

But diligent hands bring wealth.

Here is the formula…diligence > poverty. Diligence crushes laziness in a hand to hand combat. Diligence involves intentional effort. The dictionary defines the Diligence as “careful and persistent work or ethic.” You see, it is our diligence that brings wealth. It is not luck of the draw, happenstance, or favoritism that produces wealth…it is diligence. The Bible is helping us understand our role on this earth is to work the land in order to produce a harvest.

He who gathers crops in the summer is a prudent son,

This is all about preparation. Diligence involves extreme preparation. You can’t produce a great harvest without gathering crops. Poverty does not prepare; it is reactive. However, diligence prepares; it is proactive. Are you preparing yourself for a harvest? Remember what coach John Wooden said, “When opportunity comes it’s too late to prepare.” You must be ready at a moments notice to step up, you can only do this when you have prepared on the front end of opportunity. Start preparing now for your future possibilities. A prudent son is about being prepared. Prudence is defined as: acting with or showing care and thought for the future. We are called to be prudent.

But he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

If you are wasting your life away waiting for something to happen without diligence to make it happen you are sleeping as the Bible calls it. Too many people are sleep walking around in life everyday. They are alive on the outside but dead on the inside. Meaning, they do their routines, but are not living diligent to the calling of God on their life. We must awaken to the greatness within us and rise to the challenge of producing. God will bring the harvest when we have done our part in being diligent. Don’t expect to reap an abundant harvest without sowing a sacrificial seed.

It’s time to step up and be ALL that God has called you to be. Time is too short and your calling is too important to live lazy. Make a choice today to start being 10x more diligent and see what God does as a result…you WILL be amazed at the harvest you’ll reap!