“The slothful man saith, ‘There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets’” (Proverbs 26:13).
Every time I read this verse, it strikes me as though it is an incomplete thought. However, it is complete. The slothful man, the lazy man, the sluggard sees the danger in the path he is on, but he does nothing about it! He can see the lion clearly. He even repeats his observation twice. He just does nothing about it. How foolish this act would be! But, we do the same thing over and over again when reading the Word of God. We see the truths clearly defined in the Bible, but we do very little to make corrections or adjustments in our lives.
If we are not careful, we can easily become the “slothful man.” We recognize Bible truths, but they don’t fit into our plan. Or, they don’t make us “feel” good. Or they bring conviction to one of our favorite habits, or actions. Each of us must come to the realization that we are not perfect, and that God gave us His Word to help us walk more closely with Him. The Bible is meant to be our guideline to living a Christ-centered, Holy Spirit filled life. Our problem is not with having a Bible (seeing the lion in the way) … our problem comes when we are forced to action, or not to act after seeing what is in the Bible.
It has always bothered me when people complain about the government of their country. When you ask them if they voted, they reply that they do not because it makes no difference in the outcome. I would like to tell them that their complaining isn’t making any difference either, but that single vote that they had could accomplish great things if all the people that felt that way (and did not vote) had voted. My point is this … we love to point out things that “should be” getting done, but if we do nothing to affect change we are no different than the slothful man pointing out that there is a lion in the way. In conclusion this morning; I would like to encourage each of us reading this to determine that we will do more than complain about things we see that are wrong today. Let’s get up off our spiritual couches, and get involved in the game of life! Yes … getting involved in the game of life will involve some dirty pants, and scuffed up shoes, and bruises, and maybe even a broken bone or two. Regardless of all these problems, you will be able to say that you had gotten in the game! I would rather have a dirty uniform than a clean when the game is over! Get in the game of life today!