I Shall Not Labour in Vain

“In all labour there is profit, But idle chatter leads only to poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23)

Fruitfulness is a command. It was part of the major commands that God gave to man after creating him. Profitless labour is a sign that the enemy is at work in your life.

When people are attacked by these forces, they will have nothing to show for their labour. Sometimes, these powers may allow them to work and get some results, but overnight, there would be trouble and loss that would wipe out all their years of labour.

Many believers are labouring in vain; they are ignorant of the devil's operation. These believers are gifted but not lifted; they have qualifications without a job and intelligence without money. Some of them have multiple jobs, work from morning to night, and are still living in debt. Some believers are already successful in their businesses, so they don't feel they need to pray these kinds of prayers. They don't realize that it's preferable to pray before the devil attacks rather than after he has successfully launched the attack. Since the devil can attack at any time if we are careless, today's success can be lost tomorrow. Take, for instance, Job. He was already successful and well-established, but when the devil attacked him, he lost everything in one day. Job would not have been restored if God had not been with him.

Some Major Reasons Why People Labor in Vain

1. Bondage

The Israelites were in bondage, and all their labour was for their taskmasters.

⁹ And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; ¹⁰ come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” ¹¹ Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.

¹³ So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigour. ¹⁴ And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigour. (Exodus 1:9-11, 13-14)

2. The wickedness of the wicked

The Midianites waited for Israel to plant and for the seeds to grow, and at the time of harvest, they showed up to destroy all that would have given them profit; that is how the enemy operates.

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, ² and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. ³ So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. ⁴ Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. ⁵ For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number, and they would enter the land to destroy it. ⁶ So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. (Judges 6:1-6).

Sometimes, they can allow a young man to be successful in his youthful age, and in old age, they will strike him with sickness that will drain his finances.

Sometimes, they will cause the children to die, and all the parent's investment in the child is wasted. Stop them before they stop you; fight them before they fight you. Your enemy is not a physical one, your enemy is the devil, but he can influence and use people against you. Those people are not your real enemy, but they are under satanic influence. The moment you pray to stop the spiritual enemy, his influence through human vessels will also cease.

3. Sinful lifestyle

Sin can grant legal access to the enemy.

Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withheld good from you. (Jeremiah 5:25)

Biblical Examples of those Who Experienced Profitless Labour

The wise man that was forgotten

In Ecclesiastes 9:15, the wise man saved a whole city from destruction, but he was forgotten. His labour was not rewarded. This man is wise, but he is poor because whenever he helps people, they forget him. Wisdom can make you rich, but when you don’t deal with this spirit that makes people labour in vain, then you’ll be a “poor wise man.”

Jacob

Jacob was cheated many times, and he was not getting the full reward for his labour. What saved him was the covenant of God upon his life.

³⁸ These twenty years I have been with you, your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. ³⁹ That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰ There I was! In the day, the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. ⁴¹ Thus, I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. ⁴² Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labour of my hands and rebuked you last night.” (Genesis 31:38-42)

Many people in our societies are like Laban; they cheat people and deny them their full blessing. If you can pray, God can step in to give you full possession.

Further Study: Luke 5:5-7, Isaiah 65:21-23, 1 Corinthians 15:10

Day 06: 21 Days Fasting & Prayer

I Shall Not Labour in Vain

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