Proverbs 19:23 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth
I felt drawn to this verse the other day and thought there’s a good lesson here. There’s something special about the bible that should even make a non believer say wow… that is that, verses written by different authors in different books within the bible back each other up. That’s because it’s all inspired by God. In this case it’s an old testament proverb.
Now James… said in the new testament, in James 4:13-14 Now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow…we are but a mist that soon vanishes.
So here we have this desire to have things of this world, that perfect house, nice car, traveling the world, wealth who doesn’t want these things. God doesn’t say it’s wrong to have nice things either and we want these things for our families too. But he says “the sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth”. He’s not saying just anyone, he’s referring to the sluggard and to me it isn’t referring to people who are just lazy with physical work. I believe there is a spiritual side in which we cannot be sluggish. If we are not growing, we are back sliding.
YES! We are to work and provide for ourselves and families but we are not promised tomorrow. That dish we are diggin into might not make it back to our mouths, we might not ever see that 401k, that great invention, the next great company but if we remember to do all things as unto the Lord we store up treasures in Heaven that we will see. So be successful, work hard, but also be spiritually active… don’t forsake your time with the Lord. Make him your priority and everything else will be added to you.
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