Afraid

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

AFRAID

Prov 26:13

13 The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!"

NIV

We saw this same concept back in 22:13 and we entitled it “excuses”. The sluggard will find any excuse to keep from doing any kind of business or labor to earn his own keep. Goodness sake, I can’t go out there and labor in the field or for someone, the lion is roaming around looking for food and I might be his meal. Laziness finds all sorts of reasons, excuses to not do what needs to be done. The Hebrew word translated sluggard means to be slack, to lean idly. It is said idle hands are the devils workshop. When we are not actively engaged in the affairs of life, whether they be working for our sustenance, as ordained by God due to the sin of Adam, as well as our own, being his descendants, or in our mission as a member of the body of Christ, we might fall prey to the one who is like a roaring lion roaming the world to see who he can devour. The devil has a field day with idle hands. Now on the flip side of that coin, we might also see this as a paralyzed believer, or an idle believer who never pursues being an active member of the body of Christ. This would be due to their fear of Satan making a greater effort to snare them in some trap to silence or make their voice ineffective. An example of his attacks on some of the more famous or once famous multi-media evangelists who now are seen as compromised because of their public humiliation due to being caught in sin. Satan had his best foot forward for those people and they stumbled on it. We might have that kind of mentality, thinking we should not get too public with our missionary efforts for surely our sin will fine us out. Who of us is without sin? Is there a degree of sins? Satan would like nothing more to keep us hiding in the house, even the house of God, rather than having us take the message into the streets. Satan loves a sluggard, a lazy witness for God. The possible problem why some would not leave the house to go out into the streets with the message of the Gospel is because they are fearful Satan will humiliate them in public about their sin, as he did with those evangelists. However the main reason they were and we could be humiliated is due to presenting an image of perfection to the world. We believers do not want the sinners to think we sin. Because we are born again we have no more sin. We are perfect, holy, sanctified, and so if we are caught in some error, some fault, some failure, a little white lie, or whatever we think, our message is compromised. Satan has won the battle and silenced our voice. We have become the sluggard hiding in the house, not willing to leave because we are afraid.