Transcript
Ben Fallon: Today's question, on Ask Paul Tripp, comes from Joe, who responds to your August 1, 2025, Grace and Knowledge essay titled, “Work Hard, Be Humble.” In that piece you write:
We should never be satisfied; we should always be looking to increase our productivity, growth, and success. We should never be passive because forces of wickedness will look to destroy and erode what God has called us to build, protect, and preserve. There will always be more work to do, so we must never stop working hard!
And then, Paul, you go on to reference Psalm 115, verses 14 through 16, which says: “May the LORD give you increase, you and your children! May you be blessed by the LORD who made heaven and earth! The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.” And then you use that to say that:
Christians ought to be the hardest workers on earth. Children of God should strive to accomplish great things in the name of the Lord. We should be visionaries and entrepreneurs. We should make radical plans and build bigger, better, more beautiful things.”
Joe is all in favor of that, and he found the article very helpful. But then he's also wondering:
How do you balance biblical contentment with this concept of dissatisfaction and hard work? How can you simultaneously be dissatisfied and wanting more when the Bible has verses like Philippians 4:11, “For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Or 1 Timothy 6:6, that says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” And then lastly, Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” So Paul, how do we find balance?
Paul Tripp: Well, this question comes out of Psalm 115:14–16. So I would like to read that again and frame my answer through this passage because I think it's really helpful. “May the LORD give you increase, you and your children! May you be blessed by the LORD who made heaven and earth! The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.”
There are three blessings in this little passage. First is divine blessing, “May you be blessed by the LORD.” Second is divine calling, “May the Lord give you increase.” And third is divine stewardship, “but the earth he (The LORD) has given to man.”
So what does this mean for the way that we live? Divine blessing means that we understand that all of the gifts, experiences, opportunities, relationships, locations, et cetera, in our life, are not the result of us being worthy and capable but are blessings from the hand of the LORD. They come from him and belong to him and are to be used for him. Living for God's glory starts by the way that I view everything in my life. That I have all the good things in my life because God has showered his blessing down on me. The blessing of my home, the blessing of my food, the blessing of my strength, the blessing of my marriage, the blessing of my children, the blessing of my church, the blessing of my mentality, my emotionality, my physicality, my psychology–all of that is the blessing of the Creator showered down on me.
And so, I live constantly giving credit to God for everything I have; I can't look around and say, “Look what I've done with my life.” Nor can I look down on people that don't have what I have. I don't have what I have because I'm special; I have what I have because of the mystery of divine blessing. And I have no reason to take credit for what I could not have achieved on my own.
So, living for God's glory first starts with the way you view everything in your life. Listen, we treat things in our life like we own them. You get mad at your wife when she disagrees with you because you think you own her, and she's there to just celebrate the glory of the wisdom that is you. We get mad at our children because we think they're little objects for our happiness. We do it with everything in our lives. We tend to face things with ownership instead of with an understanding of the divine blessing that results in all the things we have.
Second is divine calling, “May the LORD give you increase.” It means that God calls all of us to develop and grow all that he has given us. Not for our reputation, our wealth or success, but for his glory. It is really important to remember that I should not be lazy because the success of the people of God is a finger that points to the glory of the one who is behind the success. When I give a big tip at a restaurant, often the server will come back and thank me. And I always say, “God has blessed me and I think it's my job to pass it on.”
So, how am I increasing what God has given me? Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance (Are you ready for this?) for his children's children?” So, what am I doing to build what God has given me, not just to bless this generation, but the generation to follow, and not just to bless the generation that follows, but the generation that follows that generation–all for the glory of God? I've worked hard and there has been some success from that. But when that server comes to me, I want to give God glory. So I work, I get up in the morning, and work hard, not just for personal success; I work hard because I want God to be honored by the way that I live my life and the opportunities he gives me to talk about him.
We have talked about divine blessing; we've talked about divine calling; now, divine stewardship. “But the earth he has given to the children of man.” That's an amazing statement. “The heavens are the LORD’s (belong to the LORD) heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.” You just want to say, “No! LORD, I'm not ready for that!” We are literally placed on earth as God's resident managers. God has placed me on this earth where I am with the gifts that he has given me to be his steward. He has entrusted me the care of all that belongs to him. So I do rest satisfied in his presence, promises, power, wisdom, and grace; I am secure as his child. I know I don't have to work to gain his affection; but I'm dissatisfied. And I will not be satisfied until I'm on the other side because there's always more work to be done. There are always places where I'm acting like I own what belongs to God. There are always places where I'm lazy and not following my divine calling. There's always places where I'm a bad steward of what God has given to me. Living for God's glory means I run away from a spirit of ownership. I want to build what God has entrusted to me for his glory. And I want to be a good steward of this world that he has entrusted to my care.
All of this mirrors the dissatisfaction of our Redeemer who will not leave his work of grace until every microbe of sin is delivered from every cell of every heart of every one of his children. And then he will say, “I'm done, all things are now ready; enter into my final kingdom.” I'm glad my Savior doesn't quit along the way, and I shouldn't either!
BF: On the first day of every month, Paul Tripp Ministries sends out an email essay by Paul called Grace and Knowledge. You can find all of these archived on paultripp.com, including this one, “Work Hard, Be Humble,” which inspired the question. Or, if you subscribe to our email list, you'll get this monthly email right away on the first of each month, plus our Wednesday's Word devotional every week. Make sure you're subscribed to that email list by going to paultripp.com/subscribe.
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