Proverbs 6:1-11
Have you ever had someone shake you out of a funk? Maybe it was a best friend, a mentor, a coach, a mom or a dad, and maybe for you it was laziness, insecurity, materialism or pride. Whether you asked for it or not, they weren’t going to let you get away with it. That’s how I see God using Solomon in this passage, shaking us out of a funk. And I love that he cares enough about the details of our lives to do so.
“Straight up, don’t be stupid with your money and the things you have, learn to work hard and earn it!” Something like that. 😉
In verses 1-6, Soloman is warning against suretyship- the process of paying someone else’s debt when you can’t afford it. If you find yourself in a financial situation where you got yourself in over your head, he’s saying, do yourself a favor and go fix it. Help yourself. “Swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased.” He gives us permission to make things right. There IS something you can do about it, but you have to be willing to to humble yourself.
Verses 6-11 are especially convicting to me. He harshly advocates against laziness. In our American culture we are raising a generation of people who are used to having things given to them. So many of us don’t know what it means to work hard. The message version says it this way: “A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy— do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest.”
What I see from this is wisdom in the small decisions. We know God is calling us to do more, we know his word says that whatever we do, do unto the Lord, but we say, “I’ll just push it back, I’ll work hard tomorrow.” Tomorrow may never come. There are so many excuses with laziness as the root.
Don’t just read this and look right past it. Examine your heart. Do you work hard at everything you do? Do you makes excuses? What are you putting off? How can you make better use of your time? What is causing your laziness? Whatever it is, change it. Whatever the excuse is, it’s not good enough. Stop waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Be a doer. We are responsible for our own time and our own life. Let’s steward it well and make the most of it!
Photography: @jacobnnorris