Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. PSA 127:1

This verse teaches us the principle that we are dependent upon God to bless all our labors. Even if we do everything right, we are still dependent upon the Lord for success.

True prayer is always connected with urgency and diligence in good works. When we pray for the Lord to provide, it is in blessing the work of our hands as we labor to provide. We must not sit back with a fatalistic attitude waiting for the Lord to provide, and this pertains to spiritual as well as physical things.

We cannot ask for spiritual blessings for our souls while we sit in sloth, not doing what we know our hands ought to be doing. We must do, obey, and walk in the ways of the Lord; we must ask the Lord's blessing in the way of the exercise of saving faith.

We are to earn our bread (see Mat. 6:11) through honest, upright, diligent labor. God rewards the diligent. PRO 10:4 says, "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich." The diligent do their work industriously, heartily, as unto the Lord. PRO 13:4 tells us, "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat."

We need diligence in all of our labor; as soon as the opportunity is there to do what needs to be done, we should do it because our hands may find something else to do later. ECC 9:10 says, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."

Labor in itself is a blessing; it was there before the fall. Before Adam and Eve fell, they were the keepers of the Garden. The thorns, thistles, and sweat were attached to it through the fall, but the labor in itself is a blessing; it is a privilege. It is a great privilege that we may labor and do the things the Lord has given us to do.