A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing. Proverbs 20:4.

Thomas Edison sent the following recommendations to a youth group that requested a message from him:

1. Always be interested in whatever you undertake.
2. Don’t mind the clock, but keep at it, and let nature indicate the necessity of rest.
3. Failures, so called, are the fingerposts pointing out the right direction to those who are willing to learn.
4. Hard work and a genuine interest in everything that makes for human progress will make men and women more valuable and acceptable to themselves and to the world.

That’s good advice as well as an excellent summary of what my father taught me. More importantly, it’s very much in line with biblical principles concerning work. In Colossians 4:5 it indicates that we should make the most of our time. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” And in Ecclesiastes 2:24 Solomon says, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God.”

Christians should be hard-working people. So put your back into it! As Paul said in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” That’s imperative. For your work, no matter how humble it may be, is service to the Lord and a testimony to others of your love for Christ.