Be Still and Know - When Are You Tempted To Be Lazy?
(from www.premierchristianradio.com)
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Proverbs 26:14
'As a door swings back and forth on its hinges, so the lazy person turns over in bed.'
The writer of Proverbs has a great deal to say about laziness. He is terrified of it, viewing it as the surest route to poverty. In a society without a welfare state, that could easily spell starvation and even death. Fighting the war with laziness starts at the very beginning of the day when we decide to stop turning over in bed and actually get up! I will leave you to work out whether this particularly relates to you and your life, but the point is clear. Laziness will try to lure us into its trap if it possibly can.
A Latin proverb says: “As worms breed in a pool of stagnant water, so evil thoughts breed in the mind of the idle.” I don’t believe that there is anything wrong with times of relaxation. But if life is devoid of purpose, without a clear sense of direction, evil thoughts can take root and breed. Charles Spurgeon, the famous Baptist preacher, wrote: “Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle.”
Laziness is clearly something to guard against, but I don’t believe that God invites us to sit in judgment on other people. We all live life at different paces and I suspect that we would be very bad at identifying laziness in others. But we can, and should, look at our own lives and ask whether we are being as fruitful as God wants us to be. God certainly isn’t calling us to be over-busy and to neglect times of relaxation and ease. That would be as destructive as to be lazy.
If you have a wonderfully comfortable bed, then I am delighted for you – but there comes a time when we must leave it behind us and get on with the work God wants us to do.
Question: When are you tempted to be lazy?
Prayer: Lord God, I thank you for all that you are asking me to do each day. Help me never to miss out on your blessings through being lazy. Amen