Being lazy for the Lord.
May 19th by Jon- Tagged in:
- serious wednesdays
“Guess what my favorite sky spirit is? There are three: wind, water and sun. Guess which one is my favorite?” Oh boy. My four year old McRae said that in the back seat of our car the other day and I almost drove off the road into a gully and/or a holler.
It wasn’t a difficult theological issue to address. My wife and I didn’t flinch, we just weren’t expecting the Nick show, “Penguins of Madagascar” to teach our daughter about sky spirits.
That was easy issue, but there are harder issues to deal with when you are an adult, trickier faith plateaus to navigate. One of them is “being lazy for the Lord,” a phenomenon you can see expressed in statements like this:
“I’m not going to send out any resumes. I’m just going to pray and trust God to find me a job.”
“I want to be married, but I’m not going to try to meet a spouse or get involved in the singles group at church. I’m going to pray God will bring that person into my life.”
“Our finances are a mess, but I’m not going to take a class in financial responsibility or make amends. I’m going to pray God will rescue us from this pit.”
Rarely will we or our friends so succinctly express our desire to be lazy for the Lord, but it happens. We tend to beat around the bush, we confuse the issue with more words than that. We hide behind ideas and theological sounding arguments about faith and hope. But the truth is, sometimes we’re lazy and we try to pretend we’re being holy.
But what does the Bible say? What does God’s word say about where trust in the Lord and human responsibility intersect? What does it say about the point where prayer and action come together? Where we are forgiven but still have some consequences to work through?
My favorite example is in Nehemiah, a book I’ve been digging lately. The summary of the story is that Nehemiah is rebuilding the ruined walls of Jerusalem. Many of his enemies are angered by this and threaten to attack.
This is the crossroads moment for Nehemiah. From the get go, this has been an exercise in prayer and faith. Chapter 1 starts with a long prayer. In Chapter 2, Nehemiah actually stops to pray when the King asks him what he wants to do about the wall. This is the moment when you’ve lost your job. This is the moment where you feel like you’re the type of person who wants to get married. This is the moment where you think you should write a book or become a missionary or a million other things.
What does Nehemiah do about the threats? Does he pray and move on? Not exactly. He starts that way, by telling everyone in chapter 4:
“Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord …”
And for some of us, that’s where it ends. We say the prayer and then wait. Waiting can be an important part of faith and sometimes action feels selfish and sinful and prideful. But Nehemiah isn’t done. A few verses later, he deals with the threat of violence this way:
“From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.”
I love that. His workers had a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other. The outcome is God’s, we remain grass in a field that will fade away, but Nehemiah knew it was not disobedient to protect himself from getting stabbed by one of his enemies.
He didn’t just pray the threat away, he prayed and also armed the people who were threatened. He didn’t just pray he wouldn’t struggle with porn, he installed a filter on his computer. He didn’t just pray his kids wouldn’t fall down the stairs, he prayed and put up a gate. He didn’t just pray he’d find a job, he prayed and got a part time job at Home Depot while he looked for something longer term. He didn’t just pray that a ridiculously hot and holy woman would deliver a pizza one night and fall in love with him, he prayed and went on dates and got plugged into his church.
He grabbed a hammer and a sword.
He wasn’t lazy for the Lord.
He realized that it’s OK to mix prayer with purpose, acceptance with action, surrender with sweat.
If you’re being lazy for the Lord, my hope is that you’ll remember it’s OK to have your hands full. It’s OK to clasp them in prayer even as you clasp them around a weapon.
Today, grab a hammer and a sword.
Today, quit being lazy for the Lord.
Comments
this is wonderful, sweet, straight to the point rebuke. The book of James says that faith without works is dead, like a body without spirit is dead.
James 2:17. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
James 2:26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
We are co-workers together with Christ, so we are supposed to get down to work as we pray also. We have to take steps of faith, to make things work. The God kind of faith is the one that believes, and acts according to the belief.God is provoked into action by action based faith.
[...] interviewing Matt Chandler – he labels himself a reformed charismatic. – SCL posted some challenging thoughts about trusting in God vs. action – “Being lazy for the Lord”. – Two modern day faith-giants, Sproul and MacArthur, [...]
I like this alot it it true true ture somethimes i start to get lazy but then i say no i cant i have to get up for the lord!
) God Bless <3
Ouch. Speaking as a unemployed college graduate who has haad trouble finding a roof or a job, that balance often seems invisible. I'm being lazy, or not trusting God and trying to get a job/place by my own merits, and not trusting.
I think I love this. I always hated being in school and having people "pray that Jesus will help them pass the exam". It always inserted into my mind images of Jesus sitting at the desk three back and one row over from me, taking the test and saying that his name was Erin. And it would all be okay, because he's Jesus, right?
So glad to see a get up off your butt and take responsibility for your actions and be thankful to the lord for giving you the capability to do so post.
"He didn’t just pray he wouldn’t struggle with porn, he installed a filter on his computer." I just did the same thing- after struggling for 17 years with porn, I finally installed a filter (the very manly-sounding NetNanny) and gave my wife administrative control of our account. I had always told myself "It's a heart issue, filters won't stop you from lusting" which is true, but I used that as an excuse to keep allowing myself immediate access to what my flesh wanted. I still pray, I still seek to overcome lustful thoughts and desires and to be transformed, but I also keep the porn out of my face. Neither one is complete without the other. Faith AND obedience.
It sounds like you're torturing yourself.
Of all the 7 deadly sins (gluttony, lust, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride), why is lust the only one which creates such intense feelings of guilt and shame? Do you think morbidly obese people feel this much shame when they belly up to the buffet table? Do you think wealthy Christians lie awake at night worrying that their extravagant greed makes them awful people? Do you think lazy Christians are torn up about it? Do you think Christians who support wars and death penalties are twisted up in knots about the sin of wrath? Do you think people who desire their neighbours' income are made to feel nearly as much shame as those who desire their neighbours' wives? Do you think people who "look out for number one" feel this bad about committing the sin of pride?
Why should you feel worse about your lustful thoughts than an obese man does about his gluttony?
Amen ten times over!!! There's no place for trifling in the Kingdom!!!
[...] Acuff had a great post on Being Lazy For The Lord. Love that [...]
Trust in God…but tie up your camel.
What if I'm just plain old-fashioned lazy for myself? is that OK?
[...] Being lazy for the Lord [...]
*smack*
Thanks Jon
Here is another example I thought of:
"Yea my friend Sue is almost 35 and still single. I know she desires to be married. Instead of introducing her to great Christians guys I know. I'll just pray that God brings him along soon for her and say all the Christian phrases to her."