Effort Versus Faith – How Does It Work?

Greetings and blessings, my teachers and masters!

A person destined to be very wealthy, but lies in bed from morning till night, will they indeed become wealthy or not?

Conversely, a person destined to be extremely poor, who works hard with great effort to become rich, will they succeed in becoming wealthy or not?

Pay close attention to the answer, because it’s a bit more complex than we previously thought.

King David received seventy years of life from Hashem after the first man saw him as a stillbirth that wouldn’t live even for a moment, and said to Hashem, "Isn’t it a shame for such a high soul?"

Hashem said to him, "I have no years for him."

The first man gave up seventy years of his life and gifted them to King David.

If King David had eaten organic fruits with whole wheat flour, "teff" flour, and exercised all day, could he have added even one minute to his life?

Clearly not!

He was destined for seventy years only, and that’s the maximum he could live.

But the question is this, is that also the minimum he could live?

Could King David have shortened his life by eating forbidden foods, unhealthy meals, smoking cigarettes, and using dangerous substances?

If King David had jumped in front of a truck’s wheels, would he have survived?

The answer is unequivocally no!

Hashem tells a person: "I’m giving you good, but there’s a logical and reasonable way to reach this good. If you lie in bed, not out of faith in Hashem, but simply out of laziness, the blessing won’t reach you. Just as if you exert yourself to your fullest, and it’s decreed that you remain poor, nothing will make you wealthy."

In other words, in a bad decree, no matter what you do, the evil will persist, as it is Hashem’s decree.

However, for good things, you are required to manage and use the basic things you have: eyes, brain, hands, and feet in a logical and reasonable way.

This means for each of us, not every time we say "everything is from heaven" is it truly out of faith, more often it’s out of laziness.

Often it stems from the fact that we don’t want to work hard, and when you do it not out of faith but out of the desire not to work hard, you prepare the next problem in life for yourself.

Get up and do what’s required of you, whether it’s in studies, work, or any other matter.

The words "bureaucracy" or "the problems of the generation" should not relieve you from acting for your success, future, and the future of your children.

Great success to all of us,

And blessed you shall be!