Don’t Elude, Fear or Become Apathetic

Proverbs 24:30-34
30 I went past the field of a sluggard,
past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
31 thorns had come up everywhere,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed
and learned a lesson from what I saw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.

The three triggers above can stop us from fulfilling our purpose in life which is to work hard. Now in our passage, they are described as sleep, slumber and the folding of hands to rest.

Don’t elude
The sleep our author is writing about here is not sleeping from the exhaustion of work, if it had been so the
vineyard would not have been in such disarray. No, the sleep mentioned here is the sleep of escape.
Eluding the reality of life often utilizes sleep.

Don’t Fear
The slumber our passage is referencing is the fear of starting because we just are afraid we can’t finish.
We fear…what’s the word…Failure.

Don’t Become Apathetic
The folding of the hands to rest is the apathy that comes when eluding hard work and the fear of failure
have fully blossomed from a temporary response to a situation and instead have become a persistent,
learned response to all of life.

We dare not become bored, indifferent, jaded, and uninterested in the hard work of life because to do so is
to cease to live and to instead embrace existence. Like a cactus…Oh don’t misunderstand me Cacti have a
purpose in this world, but you’re not a cactus.

Triple D: How can we defeat these three things, eluding, fear, and apathy? First, we must realize they are
driven by mostly groundless, unreasonable emotions. Does one of these three have you paralyzed? Tell
God and share with him in prayer…don’t put it off…do it now.