“The lessons of history confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration, fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 1935

God created humans to work. However, more and more people in the United States are not working. Some have fought hard to find a job and can’t, while others simply rely on government assistance to get by.

Meeke Addison of the American Family Association says that government assistance programs like welfare are often doing more harm than good, especially in black communities.

These programs facilitate the perpetuation of moral, spiritual, and physical poverty by leaving those benefiting from the program dependent on the government.

Many people are fiercely loyal to certain political parties because they promote the financial “relief” President Roosevelt was talking about during his State of the Union address in 1935.

This financial relief is intended to help those who are struggling to tread water and financially stay afloat during turbulent times. But many people continue to live off the assistance with no serious intention of finding a job. This enables them to live in poverty, but doesn’t encourage them to seek work.

As humans, when we fail to work, we fail to honor God’s call for our lives and we become a burden to those around us.

“In the beginning, when God created Adam first, He put him in The Garden to work it and tend it. That was before the fall.”

Often we think of work as a bad thing, something we didn’t have wish we didn’t have to do. However, God always intended us to work.

“Work wasn’t a punishment, it came from the understanding that God knows how we’re made, that we must do something with our hands.”

As God’s children, we should be wary of any political party that tells us that we don’t have to work.

“So when you have a political party that railed against that and tells you for decades and generations what you can’t do, what you’re not fit to do, it is the epitome of the plantation master that will not go away.”

God created us to work for him. Today, start looking at work as your divine purpose and privilege ordained by God. Ask God to help you see work for what it truly is, a gift from Him.

Highlight: Are we created to work?

Explaining the importance of work