{"id":146,"date":"2017-03-13T15:30:24","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T15:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/?p=146"},"modified":"2017-03-13T15:30:24","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T15:30:24","slug":"dont-be-lazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/03\/dont-be-lazy.html","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Be Lazy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-147\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/405\/2017\/03\/laziness-300x177.jpg\" alt=\"laziness\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We are all in the mood to be lazy at one time or another. We all deserve to be lazy and to take time for ourselves each week. But sometimes being lazy isn\u2019t a good thing. If we get too lazy, then we can start procrastinating on what needs to be done around the house, on the job, at church and even in our lives. We can forget what we were called to do in our lives.<\/p>\n<p>Laziness is defined as \u201cthe quality of being unwilling to work or use energy; idleness\u201d (dictionary.com) Many times we may have the feeling of not wanting to do anything. Not doing anything for a day, isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing. But, if we stay that way, we literally won\u2019t want to accomplish anything in our day to day lives, or do an of the work we have to do.<\/p>\n<p>Some days, more than others, we have to push ourselves to work, when we would so much rather sit back, relax and do nothing.<br \/>\nIt can be physical pain and exhaustion from something we may be going through, or the pain, stress of our job, or the pain of losing someone ewe love, that can make us want to stop doing life for a while.<\/p>\n<p>After a while though, it can drive you crazy, just sitting around ding nothing and watching your life pass you by.<br \/>\nSome Bible verses about laziness include:<br \/>\nProverbs 18:9 \u201cWhoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.\u201d This means that someone who doesn\u2019t take his work seriously is the same as a person who seeks to destroy something or someone else. If we don\u2019t take our work seriously, then our bosses will see it and probably fire us, faster than we can apologize for not doing the work we were supposed to.<\/p>\n<p>Our families can see that we might be lazy and can be very disappointed in us. God sees it too. He knows when our hearts are in the work we do and when they\u2019re not. He knows when we are going to be lazy even before we do. God doesn\u2019t mind that we\u2019re lazy every once in a while. He allows us to have time to ourselves, but we shouldn\u2019t allow ourselves to slack off and let others carry the responsibilities that were assigned to us.<br \/>\nAnother Bible verse about laziness is: Proverbs 13:4 \u201cThe soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.\u201d\u00a0 This means that a person who longs to do something, or a person that craves something, and yet does nothing to achieve it, won\u2019t get what his or her heart desires.<\/p>\n<p>For example, say someone wanted to win the lottery, and they prayed every day to God for ten years to win the lottery. Yet in all those years they didn\u2019t even bother to buy a lottery ticket.\u00a0 So, he or she stopped believing in God because He didn\u2019t give them the desires they wanted.\u00a0 If we want something, yet don\u2019t go after it, then, we may never achieve it. If we want something yet don\u2019t work towards our goal, we are standing still in the same spot, where our desire was first born into our minds.<br \/>\nMathew 25:14-30 says, \u201cFor it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master&#8217;s money&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This verse tells the story of a foolish servant that hid his master\u2019s money, instead of investing it just as the other servants had. The servant was lazy and maybe didn\u2019t feel like trading or investing the money his master gave him. If you read later into the verse the master comes home and calls him a wicked, evil servant and tell him to get away from Him.<\/p>\n<p>If we aren\u2019t careful with ourselves, our families, boss, and even God could tell us to get away from Him, because He doesn\u2019t know us. We have to be careful to not be lazy in our earthy endeavors or with getting to know God and have a personal relationship with Him.<br \/>\nMathew 7:20-23 says, \u201c21 \u201cNot everyone who says to me, \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019 will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, \u2018Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?\u2019 23 Then I will tell them plainly, \u2018I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!\u2019 That is a really scary realization that God can say that to us, if we don\u2019t keep focused on Him.<br \/>\nThe good news is, we have everything we need to not be lazy in life. We can push ourselves to our full potential in our work, in our relationship with our families, friends, and especially with God. God has never been lazy with us, so we shouldn&#8217;t be lazy in our relationship with Him. We should\u00a0respect Him by doing the things He has set out for us to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are all in the mood to be lazy at one time or another. We all deserve to be lazy and to take time for ourselves each week. But sometimes being lazy isn\u2019t a good thing. If we get too lazy, then we can start procrastinating on what needs to be done around the house,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,41,50,15],"tags":[26,6,5,8,22,51],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-faith","category-god","category-laziness","category-lessons","tag-bible","tag-christianity","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-holy-spirit","tag-laziness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t Be Lazy - We Wait He Works<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are allowed to tske time for ourselves to relax and refresh in life. 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