October 15

Don’t Sit on the Sidelines — Get in the Game!

As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:13

A lot of people today mistake being lazy with being in rest with God. “God is gonna bless me. I’m gonna get all of this provision, just layin’ up here in my bed.” But let me tell you, the Word of God cuts deeper than most razorblades. Because as soon as Paul heard an excuse or an argument like that, he would cut you off and he would say it clear in ~2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

Now Paul, in that verse, he wasn’t talking about those that are not able. He was talking about those that were not willing. There’s a huge difference between the two, and in the church some believers were so wrapped up in the doctrine of rapture and coming back of Christ and a so-called “lazy excuse” for the rapture that they were no longer being fruitful or productive or involved. Instead of being “busy at work” they were being “busybodies.” That’s a New Testament reference of those who are “working their mouths.”

God never intended for His people to be idle. From the very first moment man was introduced into the garden, God didn’t first give Adam a wife, He first gave Adam a job. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” ~ Genesis 2:15. Work was not a curse, work was a calling. Sin made it harder but it never made it optional.

When you’re idle, when you’re lazy, when you’re procrastinating, that gives an open seat in your mind for Satan to come in and occupy with nonsense, gossip, you name it. When a man is not actively working and being fruitful with his hands, Satan will actively keep that man busy with his mouth. That’s why Paul told these people to follow his example and “work night and day so that you may have an opportunity to eat your own bread and not be a burden to any man.” Not a burden on the church, not a burden on any brothers or sisters that were there.

Paul set an example of diligence because he knew what laziness did not only to your witness but to your community. And as he said the truth in love, he showed grace when it was time to show grace. He said, “Have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed… yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15. In other words, love that brother enough to tell him the truth. Don’t enable his laziness but also don’t throw him away like he’s useless.

God’s kingdom will not be moved until His people are moved. Faith was never meant to sit on the couch, but was meant to roll up its sleeves and get in the game. James said it best: “Show me your faith without your works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works” ~ James 2:18. Faith is not armchair lazy; faith is involved, engaged, intentional, diligent, and wanting to do something for the glory of God.

If you’re at a place in your life right now whether it’s your job, whether it’s your ministry, whether it’s your marriage, whether it’s your kids or whether it’s in your walk with God that you have been tempted to lay back a little bit and be lazy and not give it your all, hear this today: Get back in the game! God blesses motion, He does not bless stagnation. As a matter of fact, in the very last part of that same chapter, Paul wraps it up with a great promise for us. He says, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all” ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:16.

Do you want that peace? Then pick up your purpose. Stop sitting on the sidelines waiting for God to move. Get out there and move with Him!

…and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:2

Jeremiah 26:1-27:22
2 Thessalonians 3:1-18
Psalm 85:1-13
Proverbs 25:16

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