When we get tired of our jobs, or tempted to retire, it’s a good idea to review what God has to say about working and laziness:
Genesis 2:15: The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Exodus 23:12: Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.
Proverbs 6:6-11: Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
Proverbs 10:4: Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
Proverbs 10:5: He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.
Proverbs 10:26: As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him.
Proverbs 12:24: Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.
Proverbs 12:27: The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions.
Proverbs 13:4: The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.
Proverbs 15:19: The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.
Proverbs 18:9: One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys.