Posted on 06/13/2021 12:34:46 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Proverbs 13:4).
“The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing,” that isn’t always true in America. He probably has government housing and food stamps. This is a general truth, but America is the exception and not the rule.
“The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing,” this could apply to spiritual truth as well. A man is too lazy to go to church, a man is too lazy to study his Bible, he has a desire to be approved unto God, but he has no desire to do what he needs to do to get there, and he has nothing.
“. . . but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat,” we have too many fat, obese people that can’t control their physical food intake, but we don’t have enough Christians fat from the overabundance of spiritual truth. We have a lot of believers that are addicted to the things of this world, but not enough Christians addicted to the things of God: “. . . they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” (I Corinthians 16:15).
Christ said, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of” (John 4:32). He certainly wasn’t getting fat off of physical food, but He was sure fat off of the Word of God.
Some folks work all day and then drive quite a few miles to go to church. It can be a real weariness of the flesh to do those things, and then you consider those 8-day revivals that start around 7:00 p.m. and don’t let out until 9:30-10:00—I’m telling you, there are some pretty tired saints! But bless God, they are pretty fat because they have been diligently feeding on the feast of the Word of God and fellowship with the saints. While the old physical flesh is getting worn down, that spiritual man on the inside is getting built up. “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (II Corinthians 4:16).
Folks get tired and can barely make it, but they keep coming. You take those old camp meetings of a generation ago and they would go 3-4 weeks and often go all day long. That would take that old flesh and bring it under subjection and sometimes they would just beat it to a pulp—but the inward man grew strong and fat.
“. . . but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat,” can be applied to the working man who works hard and puts in a full day. Paul said that we are to “study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing” (I Thessalonians 4:11-12).
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