You will spend most of your waking hours working in one form or another. Does the God of Israel have anything to say about work? Does how you approach work affect your spiritual life? Does you spiritual life affect your approach to work? Or are they separate matters?Career Advice From ProverbsProverbs 6:6-11 the ant is gives us a good example to follow: The Ant Is Self-Motivated [verse 7]No one has to tell the any what to do. There is no boss prodding the ant onward. The ant sees what needs to be done and takes care of it. The ants motivation comes from within.A person with internal motivation makes a valuable employee. A person who constantly needs to be told what to do is: Less valuable: If a manager constantly needs to watch over an employee to make sure they are doing what needs to get done it’s a drain on their time. An employee can be counted on to take care of what needs doing frees up that manager so they can be somewhere else getting other work done.Less successful: lack of internal motivation and drive shows there is little potential for advancement. Employers will give more money to employees with drive in order to keep them. Employers will give promotions to employees with drive so they can take on greater responsibilities.The Ant Prepares For The Future [verse 8]When the ant sees the opportunity to gather food the ant jumps on it [even if its not hungry at the moment]. The ant stores up for the times when nothing will be there to gather. Hard Work, Works! [verses 9-10]To be successful requires hard work. No employer is going to make efforts to reward a worker who is always looking for excuses and ways to get out of the task in from of them. Such people end up poor and not having much.IMPORTANT: this doesn’t mean that poor people are all lazy people… ie. you’re poor, therefore, you’re lazy. That is a fallacy as much as the idea Job’s afflictions were caused by sin.Some people are born poor and its not any fault of their own… it could be because of family legacy, or social injustice. However, the way OUT of poverty usually involves hard work and drive. Social programs can help give people opportunity but the way to make those opportunities successful is through hard work and drive. [verse 11] The consequences of their behavior come upon the lazy person as a surprise… like a bandit, or an armed robber. They were not expecting it. The proverbs have been placed within God’s word so that you may avoid such nasty surprises. God’s word says “you don’t have to learn the hard way, I [God] can tell you the wise way to proceed in life”.Proverbs 26:16 Some people don’t see the consequences of the approach they are taking. Their way seems perfectly sensible and logical… until the moment it isn’t. Consider Proverbs as God’s advice… from one who knows. Learn From The Example of OthersProverbs 24:30-34 try to recognize the cause and effect at play around you. Learn what leads to success and what leads to poverty. The person with the overgrown vineyard and the broken down property probably thinks he’s the smart one for not working… at first these things don’t seem like such a big deal… then you reach a tipping point when the unattended matters add up so that fixing them isn’t even possible any more. You might have a house that needs new shingles to keep out the rain. Its going to cost $5,000. You’ can handle the cost but it will mean you have to put off some fun stuff you had planned. The leak is not in the living area so why bother fixing it. A few years go by and the beams get rot in them and now the roof needs to be completely replaced and is in danger of caving in… repairs are going to cost $50,000 which you cannot afford!The Lazy MindsetThe lazy person [sluggard] dreams and talks but never makes it happenProverbs 14:23 diligent work is what makes dreams come true… not good intentionsProverbs 13:4 you have to act on the desire, or the idea, to get the good resultsProverbs 22:13 those who don’t want to work an be very creative i