Page 106 - The Prosperous Way _ (APRIL 2024 v3)

THE PROSPEROUS WAY

STEP 6 — WORKING: THE HAND OF THE DILIGENT

Unless we are prepared to work diligently, we will not succeed. We can
ask God to bless the work of our hands, but we cannot ask Him to get
the work done for us. However, in today’s world with all its competing
demands, it is often not sufficient to work hard—we must also work
effectively.

As we have seen in Chapter 10, the first key to working effectively is
managing our time well and working with focus and energy within the
time allotted for work. Time is our most precious and also our most
limited resource. We must ration our time so that it is expended on
doing the things that yield the best results, in keeping with our goals. To
harness time and lead it where we will, is perhaps the hardest skill we
will ever have to learn. But how wise we are in using our time and how
focused we are in our work are critical to building successful lives.

The second key to working effectively is finding work that you are
naturally good at doing and then developing competence in our work,
as we discussed in Chapter 6. We grow in competence by honing our
talents and skills so as to build a reservoir of knowledge about our craft
that is readily available to quickly and effectively meet the needs of
others. Working with our talents is also the secret sauce in maintaining
focus, energy and enthusiasm as we work.

FOR MEDITATION

 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth;
Hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads to poverty.
(Proverbs 10:4 & 4:23)

 Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might.
(Ecclesiastes 9:10)

 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for
the Lord, not for men. (Colossians 3:23)

 A sluggard does not sow in season, so at harvest time he looks
and finds nothing. (Proverbs 20:4)

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