Proverbs 6:6-11 The Folly of Indolence
6Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
Let’s dive into what God opened my eyes to in these verses. It is important to understand that what I am going to be talking about is what God showed me, which may be different from what He opens your eyes to. Dive into the verses yourself as well and allow God to speak to you individually.
The first thing I did when I started studying these versus was look up the meaning of “indolence”. I had never heard that word used before. Maybe it is just me, but for those of you who do not know, it means laziness. Therefore, the title is saying “The Foolishness of Laziness”. As much as it may hurt, evaluate your life and the laziness that may be taking over your decisions while studying these versus.
These verses refer to the ant as an example, which I found interesting. The ant works extremely hard year round in order to survive. Like us, ants have needs in order to survive, and because of that, have a drive to carry out their daily work. Honestly, we could learn a lot from ants. Their way of planning is incredible, they are extremely diligent, and are the exact opposite of lazy. Like the ant, we should get our work done simply because it needs to be done, but that is not the case. We work for money, recognition, maybe for a promotion, anything that may put a little pep in our step to get things done.
I will be the first to say these verses really opened my eyes to the areas of my life I see laziness. Verses 9 and 10 speak on sleep. All those times I look back on when I decided to sleep in or go to bed early knowing I had work to do, were times I was lazy. Trust me, I get it. Sometimes you really need that extra sleep. But at what cost are you allowing that to happen? I see this in my occasional procrastination with school. I catch myself most nights at my kitchen table with only an hour left until an assignment or exam is due. This often happens because the night before it is all due I tell myself, “I will just do it tomorrow” or “I have worked hard today so I deserve to just go ahead and go to bed”. Even as I am sitting here and writing this now, I feel guilty about all the times I have allowed my laziness to take over me.
Being a Christian is hard work. I will go ahead and tell you that now. I have experienced the ups and downs and all the twists that comes with chasing after God. It was not until recently I realized my laziness towards my faith. I spent years choosing sleep over digging into God’s word and that breaks my heart. That is years of wisdom, knowledge, and relationship that I lost just because I was lazy. When I think about whether sleep or waking up and reading God’s word is more rewarding, the answer is easy. Defeating my laziness, which still comes out in this area time to time, and choosing to find time for God brings so much joy and love to my day. It has a direct impact on my day, and if you give seeking God consistently a chance, I guarantee you would also decide it is better than a little extra sleep. We are called to seek in order to find. It is hard to seek and find time for God when you are too lazy to do so. I really struggled for a while when it came to this. I get up for work at 5 am, therefore cannot get up any early to study the word, and yes I tried, and I was way too tired after my 12 hour shift, homework, and any cru event I am a part of that specific day to spend time alone with God. But it is so important to find that alone time. You may be getting time with God through ministry, church, friends, etc, but the alone time in God’s word is something that needs to be sought after daily. Once I learned of my laziness, experienced the impact digging into the Word has on my day, and decided to make the change, I figured it out. I began, very recently, taking my bible to work with me. When I find time in the morning or during my lunch break, I do my devotionals.
We need to evaluate our lives, notice the laziness, and make a change. There is always a fix and solution to our laziness, but we have to decide ourselves to make the change. Find your way out of the laziness and seek, learn, and work hard for the Kingdom of God. It takes hard work, but I promise the reward is so much sweeter than that extra sleep you could get.
Take time this week to evaluate your heart, mind, talk, and actions. Dig into these verses and ask God to show you what areas of your life you are lazy in and could work on. I pray God speaks to you through these verses as you study them and that you make the changes that need to be made.
