Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Monday, February 29, 2016

"The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."¹

In speaking about people who want to freeload on the government without wanting or trying to find work, Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Arizona said, "A liberal paradise would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive healthcare, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities, and only law enforcement has guns. And believe it or not, such a place does, indeed, exist.... It's called prison."²

As the old saying goes, "There aren't any free lunches." The reality is that for every person who gets a free lunch from the government, someone else had to work and earn the money to pay for that lunchâ€"and it wasn't the government; it was we, the working tax payers."

True, we need to support people who are not able to work, and those who are genuinely wanting to work but can’t find any. However, people who are looking for work to help pay their own way, need to accept any job they can find, no matter how menial it may be.

When I was a student in college many years ago, even though I was already a highly and well-trained skillful tradesman (having graduated from technical college in Australia), I took any work I could findâ€"including scrubbing dirty floors and crawling on my stomach through very large pie-making machines in a pie factory in Chicago. As I was conscientious in working in these menial jobs, in time more rewarding opportunities opened up for me.

When the government keeps giving free handouts to freeloaders, we are not helping them, but are reinforcing their irresponsible behavior and helping them to breed further freeloading, over-dependent generations. Furthermore, when we as a government do this primarily to gain votes, we are acting in a totally irresponsible and despicable manner. We need to help people to help themselves and, in so doing, help them to become more reliable and self-respecting citizens. This is for the health and betterment of the entire nation.

I will undoubtedly receive some negative criticism and lose some subscribers as a result of this issue of Daily Encounter. However, by the grace of God my purpose is always to be a truth teller and not a people-pleaser, nor a vote getter.

One very positive action that we the people (the voters) can and urgently need to doâ€"for the sake of the entire nation and everyone in itâ€"is to vote out every vote-getting-irresponsible-politician and vote in do-what-is-right-moral-and responsible politicians.

Suggested Prayer: "Dear God, please help me always to act responsibly in every situation in which I find myself. And when it comes to voting, please remind me to act responsibly by knowing all that I need to know about every politician who is running for office and, in turn, vote only for moral, responsible, and mature leader politicians. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

1. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NIV).
2. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff's Office.

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