Starvation Is The Best Teacher Of Good Work Habits

USPA NEWS - “˜Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. Proverbs 19:15´

What is the cure for you? Do not make excuses. Get to work. Learn that extra time in bed is a horrible waste. Get up.

Slothfulness is doing a job slowly. It is dreading work and resenting the effort it requires. It is a lazy attitude and effort toward a job; and it starts a vicious cycle. Laziness saps your energy, slows you down, intimidates your spirit, and puts you to sleep. Laziness begets more laziness, until you are a worthless bum. It leads to, “I´m too tired to do anything; I think I´ll take a nap.“ Soon you are too “tired“ to even eat (Pr 19:24: 26:15)!

What are the consequences of laziness? In a godly world, you would starve to death. Jesus Christ of the Bible does not allow lazy people to eat (Pr 20:4; II Thess 3:10)! An idle soul ““ a person not working at something ““ shall suffer hunger. Because you are lazy, noble employers will not promote you or pay you very much; you will stay in lowly jobs and get poorer and poorer (Pr 10:4; 12:24; 13:4). You will soon not have enough to eat.

Each day brings tests to prove whether you are a sloth or not. One is in the morning, when it is time to get up. What do you do? If you roll over, cuddle yourself under the blankets, and wish you did not have to get up, you are a sloth. Solomon mocked your antics in bed as resembling a door on hinges, turning back and forth in the comfort of your covers until poverty has destroyed you (Pr 6:9-11; 24:33-34; 26:14). Diligent men are thankful for another day, a place to work, and things to do; they get up and get going.

What is the cure for bums? A nation could get rid of them by ending social assistance to such people and firing slow employees. A nation´s productivity would leap. Prosperity would abound much more than it does. Starvation is the best teacher of good work habits (Pr 16:26; 20:4). Men have a universal tendency to be thankful and motivated to work, when their belly button gets closer to their backbone. If your nation stopped protecting and subsidizing the slothful, men would learn to work, or starve. Either way, society and the workforce are purged of those unworthy of food and drink. What glorious wisdom!

What is the cure for you? Do not make excuses. Get to work. Learn that extra time in bed is a horrible waste. Get up. Attack your job with fiery zeal, as to the King of kings, and think about working for kings, for that may be your next job (Pr 22:29; Col 3:22-25). Work is pleasure and a privilege to the godly man, and he will be content with whatever abilities and job God has given him.

Christian reader, the lesson of this proverb applies to all areas of your life, not just employment, washing dishes, or cutting the grass. It includes your attitude and efforts in your marriage, in child training, in personal devotions, prayer, and the worship of God. Are you ambitious, committed, energetic, and fervent in all these duties as well? There is only one way to live and approach your responsibilities ““ all out for the glory of God!

Never think for a minute that this doctrine is only found in the Old Testament. Paul condemned slothfulness in the New Testament. He ordered the churches not to let lazy people eat (II Thess 3:10-12). And he called for the exclusion of any church members compromising these orders (II Thess 3:6-15). The grace of God that converts sinners, and the proper preaching of His Word, will transform men from the slothful habits and thinking of this lazy and spoiled generation.

The blessed Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul were diligent workers. Jesus often did not have time for leisure (Mark 3:20-21; 6:31). He did not want night to come, because He would have to quit working (John 4:34; 9:4; 17:4). Paul labored more diligently than the other apostles (I Cor 15:10). He preached during the day and worked at night; he preached during the night and worked during the day (Acts 18:3; I Thes 2:9; II Thes 3:8).

There is no room in the kingdom of heaven for lazy and slothful people (Matt 11:12; Luke 9:62; 13:24; I Cor 9:24; Phil 3:14). Neither Jesus nor Paul was slothful, and they are both your examples (I Cor 11:1). They put their hands to the will of God and did it with all their might, just as you should do in the various duties God has given you (Eccl 9:10).