“Prepare provisions for yourselves, …” (Josh. 1:10-11)
As the people of God were getting ready to cross over the Jordan and enter the Promised Land, they were commanded to each prepare provisions for themselves. Notice that they weren’t to assume that their personal provision was someone else’s responsibility, but their own!
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 says, “that you also aspire … to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.”
Paul exhorted the Thessalonian believers to work with their own hands so that they would lack nothing.
As children of God, we’re to be responsible to provide for our needs and the needs of our family, and to trust God to empower us to do so. There are some who lack the physical or emotional health to do so, but all others are to prepare provisions for themselves (see also 1 Timothy 5:8).