“Despite their desires, the lazy will come to ruin, for their hands refuse to work.”
Proverbs 21:25 NLT
The wise Solomon warns against LAZINESS! He says that even if you have good and great desires in life, if you are lazy, you will still come to ruin!
Many Christians desire a holy life with God! Many aspire to be like saint so and so! Many daydream about seeing God face-to-face and be glorified with Him! But unfortunately, their desires take them nowhere simply because they hardly put the effort to work with God’s Grace to attain the desires they have!
St. James speaks clearly in his epistle about the danger of “Faith without work”! Work means effort, labour and energy put in! Spiritual struggles are all about striving and labouring. The Saints, like Abba Anthony the Great, were called “co-workers with God!”
Let’s put aside all laziness and slackness and become watchful and ready to even force ourselves to be ACTIVE spiritually so that our life does not remain a theoretical Christian one only full of unfulfilled wishes! That would be a great disappointment! Wishing but never realizing anything! A prominent characteristic of laziness is “blaming” our lack of progress on others or the environment. So be aware of this and focus on working on yourself and accepting the work of God in you!
May the Lord grant us the strength not to be limited by the circumstances surrounding us but to remain awake spiritually despite the current obstacles and to continue to put our “hands [...] to work” for the glory of God’s Name!
