Wages...

Wages...

Lately, There has been a lot of talk about raising the minimum wage.  Wages Have been paid for work since forever...minimum or not, a worker is due his earnings for his work...or life....

When my husband and I graduated from college, eons ago, he with a masters degree, and I with a bachelors, we both went to work. He had a high paying job with a mining company....$800.00 per month.  I was working a part time job with the high wages of $400 per month..so the grand total was a whopping  $1200.00..after living on student wages, that was huge at the time...we purchased an older home, three bedroom, two baths, huge lot,on a quiet street for $19,000.00. Monthly house payments were $160.00 per month..

The following year, after painting, cleaning, fixing...we sold that house for $26,000 and moved to another town, bought a new home for $24,000. My husband quit his job to strike out on his own, consulting, prospecting...we had $1300.00 In savings which just paid for our first child, no health insurance ....consulting fees at that time were $125 per day...so one day's wage paid for the house payment...how times have changed....but he didn't always have consulting jobs..they came as needed...

God was faithful through it all....He provided the jobs when we needed them. I was able to be a stay at home mom, my husband's dreams of prospecting were satisfied. We didn't live a extravagant life, I learned the importance of thrift stores and we never were in need..creative in many ways...no cell phones or cable tv...no college debt...church friends were our community....hunting, canning, freezing were part of life...

So wages are relative...we need them..we earn them when we work...but God is the ultimate provider...He brings the contentment, the creativity, that we need no matter the amount of wage....we are to be good stewards of whatever He brings....

Thank YOU for your provision, your creativity....your life giving breath to live according to your will...

Deuteronomy 24:15
Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

1 Kings 5:6
“So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians.”

Proverbs 10:16
The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.

Proverbs 11:18
A wicked person earns deceptive wages, but the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.

Proverbs 22:4
Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.

Haggai 1:6
You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

Malachi 3:5
“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Matthew 20:8
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

Luke 10:7a
Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.....

John 6:7
Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

John 12:5
“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”

Romans 4:4
Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Timothy 5:18
For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

James 5:4
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

Revelation 6:6
Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”