The Sunday Mail
SCHOOLS opened last week and we pray for good results for all students.
Last week we spoke of obeying your life sources or parents so that it might be well with you. If where you are right now is dry look back and scrutinise the areas of disobedience in your life: most likely that was the root cause of the dryness in that area.
This week we look at Ecclesiastes 10:8 which says, “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breakethan hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”
We study the first part of this verse that talks of you digging a pit and falling into it. The second verse is from Proverbs 22:28-29 which says, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”
These verses can be used to explain many elements of life. However, today we want to use them to talk about slothfulness or laziness.
It is very unfortunate that in this day and age many young people no longer believe in the principle of hard work and paying your dues or earning your stripes.
Many people have been duped of their hard earned money due to get rich quick schemes. We have pyramid schemes that promise millions in a short space of time. These days there are betting houses all over the urban areas and people spend the whole day betting on football teams or on horses or whichever sport they fancy.
There is this very unfortunate trend in our nation whereby people follow whatever “seems” to be accumulating money at the time.
For example, when people hear about a particular degree or qualification that seems to pay well in the job market, everyone starts doing it. When people hear that going to a foreign country will improve your life, everyone runs to get visas and now we have Zimbabweans all over the world. When people hear that certain crops are money making they dump what they were doing and start farming something else.
We have had diamonds, Japanese second-hand vehicles, second-hand clothing from the UK and Mozambique, chicken farming, mushrooms, Dubai and the now famous quail/chihuta/isagwaca birds.
There is nothing wrong with engaging in these activities because there are many who are doing well and excelling in them. The problem is when you chose to follow simply because you think that is the quickest and easiest way to make it big in life.
Granted, life is tough and we often need immediate solutions because our problems and challenges are immediate. However we seem to have lost the art of basic hard work, sticking to a task and seeing it through.
Many young people now have a mind-set of making it big without paying the price for it.
This speaks directly to our core morals and principles. It translates to who our heroes in life are and who we aspire to be like.
There is no easy road. If the road has been easy then it is because someone else worked for it and you have to work hard to maintain that status lest they lose everything.
1 Kings 12 is entirely dedicated to Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son. When Solomon died he took over. Before Solomon, David was the king and we all know about how great a king David was and how he made Israel prosper.
Solomon took over after the death of his father David and built an immaculate temple for God and made Israel so rich that every Israelite owned a house and a farm.
The Bible actually says that silver was as common as dust and gold as common as stones in the streets of Jerusalem. That is how prosperous they were under Solomon.
Rehoboam took over after Solomon’s death and made some very foolish decisions from the get go. What took his grandfather 40 years to build and his father an additional 40 to multiply took him less than a year to destroy.
Civil war broke out in Israel because of him and the nation never returned to what it was again. Rehoboam thought it would be easy and that everything would take care of itself.
He had no idea that it took hard work and time to prosper.
My encouragement to you is for you to remain diligent, to work hard, do not sit on your hands but instead get up and find something to do.
Observe the principle that is tried and tested. You can succeed in anything if you work hard enough and smart enough. I am a passionate soccer fan and the story of Leicester city cannot go unmentioned.
How the team worked hard reaped the rewards, overtaking those who thought that the title would obviously be theirs.
If you chose to be lazy and slothful you are digging a pit for yourself and you will definitely fall in sooner or later. We will continue next week. God bless.
Tinashe Zinyemba is a pastor with New Life Covenant Church. Feedback: [email protected]
