Proverbs 19:15
Laziness brings on deep sleep,
and the shiftless go hungry.
Laziness makes a person weary. Inactivity slows down the body’s metabolism. Taking it easy causes even the easy to become laborious. And as activity grows more wearisome, so then one is unable to produce a living.
We see this in the workplace. There is the employee who drags into work. He then takes a long time to “settle in.” He needs his coffee; he needs to chat a bit. He needs to ease into his work. He then needs to take breaks, check his email, check the news, see how others are doing. He always “has a lot to do”; if only the company would hire more people. In essence he is in a deep sleep even during his waking hours.
Then he wonders why others get promoted over him. He thinks his supervisor doesn’t understand his situation. Nor, now that he thinks about it, did the supervisor in his other job, nor any of the supervisors in the jobs he bounces around in. He suffers hunger in that he cannot afford the things he wants or advance as he thinks he should. But even his hunger cannot move him to do what is necessary because it is more comfortable to rest, to sleep than to be productively active.
So it is with many spiritually. There are many who are quite active in attaining worldly success, but are in a deep sleep spiritually because, well…they just aren’t “religious.” They move about in their dream world, unwilling to wake up from their comfortable beds. They too suffer hunger, but their idleness keeps them from seeking God. They also easily come up with excuses: Who can know the truth? Too many religions. A God of love will not condemn. I have a good heart. Religion is just too much work.
What will mark you day today? Slothfulness or productive activity?
3 John
1 The elder,
To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,[a] even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.