Thought for the Day

Yesterday, we looked at Solomon's observations of the property of the slothful. Today's verses record the instruction that he gained from observing the mentality of the slothful person and its disastrous affects. "A little more sleep in the morning...the work will still get done; a few minutes over on a break or lunchtime won't hurt; a day off here because it's snowing, a day off there for a headache..." Lazy people are more concerned with momentary comfort than with protecting their family's and their own long-term interests. Rather than fix a small problem, they prefer to rest or amuse themselves, until it grows too large for them to handle. Poverty breaks upon them as suddenly as a robber and is as overpowering as an armed soldier. If one is not diligent at work, mistakes and infractions collect against one's record just as a thief collects one's valuables while one sleeps.

God allots everyone the same number of hours in a day. We choose to wisely use or waste them. Some people waste their precious time by over-indulging in sleep. We are admonished as "children of light" to be spiritually alert and watchful. We must ask God to help us balance our time between work, sleep, rest, play, prayer, study, and ministry to others. Time and sleep are both God's gifts. When we are careful to balance our lives properly, and give our worries to God, our sleep will be refreshing. "When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet" (Proverbs 3:24). With His guidance and enabling, we will not neglect the important things that must be accomplished in our allotted 24-hour day.

The Bible says that a man who labors will have sweet sleep, while those who are gluttons will not rest well. Sometimes, they will even have bad dreams. As Christians, we are to remember whether we are sleeping or awake, we belong to God. "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him" (1 Thessalonians 5:5-10).