What is Laziness?
Laziness means not wanting to work or use one’s energy. It signifies an unwillingness to work, an idle hand, a person at rest, someone who refuses to do anything. Laziness encompasses unfinished thoughts, incomplete plans and projects, indecision, instability, procrastination, and wickedness (Matthew 25:26).
Laziness and wickedness are twins. The Bible does not encourage laziness. Refer to the following Scriptures: Ephesians 4:28; 1 Timothy 5:8-10, 13; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-11; Hebrews 12:12-13.
What prevents the manifestation of God’s glory in the lives of many of God’s children today is laziness and sin. Being a child of God’s covenant does not exempt you from work, as there is a certain way things operate in God’s Kingdom for everything to truly go well.
Your father’s covenant with God does not cover you from days of famine. A good example is the life of Isaac in Genesis 26; although he was a bearer of the covenant rights of his father Abraham, he still experienced famine in all its forms.
He had to work hard and sow his seeds in the ground. He dug many wells to obtain water for his survival. Many Africans still struggle for their parents’ inheritance, killing each other instead of working hard to obtain their own blessings.
“When hands are lazy, the rafters sag; when hands are slack, the house leaks.” Ecclesiastes 10:18
Scripture sometimes uses the image of a house to refer to people (Christians). We are the temple of God, where He always resides. Life is the nerve of the building. What ruins the state of the building is simply the laziness and idleness of many people’s hands.
Many people today experience losses in their financial, material, educational, and even professional lives due to idleness and laziness. Some people are simply born lazy, and others are just lazybones! There’s no breakfast for a lazy cat!
Laziness is a vision killer or a top thief. A man who allows laziness to dominate him is not in a position to claim anything from God. Look at creation in Genesis chapter 1; it shows that God the Father Himself is a diligent worker, meticulous, and a full-time worker (Genesis 2:8).
For each day, He fully engaged in His work, examined it at the end of the day, and carefully harmonized everything before beginning the work of the next day. He never rested until His work was completed. After six full days of work, He rested on the 7th day.
Many people in our time prefer to rest for six days and work only one day, especially Africans, and then claim a month’s salary (John 5:17). You cannot afford to be lazy if you want to achieve things in life. If you dream of reaching high, you must be diligent.
“The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy hand will be put to forced labor.” Proverbs 12:24
“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” Proverbs 22:29
Diligence is a precious gift for a man. A diligent man will undoubtedly reach the top quickly. A diligent man will stand among the great, not among the least. Average men are ordinary men, low-level men, and men in the valley of life. Lack of diligence can turn a champion into a local champion of his generation without warning.
“The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!’ As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is weary of bringing it to his mouth again. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer.” Proverbs 26:13-16
A lazy man will always have excuses for not being able to pursue the path of success while others are working hard. The excuses of the lazy can be summarized in seven things:
- The need for sufficient sleep,
- Weather conditions,
- Lack of money,
- Lack of connections or help,
- Lack of time,
- Lack of education,
- A poor background.
Listen, when you delay what you are supposed to do today, you will have to make up for it at the expense of something else you could have done. Many people today are redeeming the time because they delayed actions that were necessary for their destiny, marital establishment, education, etc. (2 Corinthians 6:2).
If you see a 60-year-old man still working as a janitor, it’s because he wasted his time and is now paying the price with hard labor…
This text is an excerpt from the book “ The 12 Giants and the Killer Spirits in Africa ” written by Victor Charles OKAFOR.
We invite you to read the following article: “Spiritual Laziness“
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