All Dream and No Steam

The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor
(Proverbs 21:25 – ESV)

This one is for Adrian Warnock

The promises of God are active for those who act in accordance with them. It does you no good to post a promise on your refrigerator and use it like some magic spell. You must attach concrete action to your declaration of God’s truth or to you they will be but vain words. How many long to claim the promises of God by which we are made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), yet they become unfruitful in their knowledge of God because they will not be diligent to add to their faith (2 Peter 1:8-9)? They don’t act in accordance with the promises of God and the talents He gave them. Instead of an increasingly fruitful and blossoming relationship with Christ we can become mere talkers and actually forget that we are even His.

Imagine this scenario: two boys dream of being big league baseball players. Then one day, God comes down and tells the two boys that they will make the major leagues when they grow up. The first boy says, “cool, I guess that means I can just do what I want to, God promised me that I am going to make it”. He promptly begins a life of leisure where he sits around all day eating potato chips and watching TV, never getting any exercise and certainly never practicing baseball. The other boy, however, acts in accordance with the promises God made to him. He goes out and practices real hard, and he says to himself “I’m not only going to make it to the majors, I am going to make it to the Hall of Fame!”

As they grow up, it is more of the same; the first boy becomes more and more engrossed in the idea that he will make it, and revels in that alone, never paying attention to his body or his craft. He plays the big shot as he works his way up the ranks of little league, high school and eventually all the way to the major leagues, getting one big break after another, all the while never improving his skills.

Unlike the first boy, the second boy isn’t able to coast on his way up. His breaks his arm in middle school then his leg in high school, but he never gives up. He remembers the promise of God. He understands that God started it and God is going to finish it (Philippians 1:6). He acts in accordance by working out, understanding that God is working in him (Philippians 2:12-13). He forgets what is behind and presses on toward the mark (Philippians 3:13-14). He learns that he can do all things through God who strengthens him (Philippians 4:13).

God was true to His Word. The first boy, who was slothful, makes the majors, but he never cracks the starting lineup. Just as he did in his earlier years, he now sits idly by while watching others do what he now wished he could do. He plays only one year, and then he gets demoted, and then a year later he is out of baseball altogether. He has his memories, but not much else. Since he didn’t even pay attention to his body, he begins to lose his health at an early age. The first boy had become bitter against the second boy saying he got all the breaks and it was all “luck”. He grows cold against God, wondering why he didn’t keep His promise, and he dies in his embittered state.

The second boy has a wonderful career, and when his long and distinguished baseball days are over, he is elected unanimously into the Hall of Fame. The second boy goes on to live a long life after baseball, and becomes an ambassador to witness to people of the power, promise, and purpose of God.

How many people are lazy about the promises of God? Daniel 9:2 reveals that the prophet understood that Jeremiah told of seventy years of captivity. He understood that they were almost to the time. He might have used that as an occasion to relax, but instead he got more fervent and acted in accordance with that truth by crying out to God (Daniel 9:3). Now that is what God is looking for!

I leave you with some admonitions. You need to bloom wherever and whenever you are planted or else you will be stuck there in the mud of mediocrity wishing you could be a tree when you won’t even try and be a twig. Do today what others will not, and you will do tomorrow what others cannot.

You might be making it to heaven, but are you taking anyone with you? Where does your treasure lie? Is your house made of wood, hay, and stubble? How many crowns do you want to throw down at Jesus’ feet? Are you sitting idly on the bench, or are you on your way to the Hall of Fame? You may have a desire but do you have the fire: you may have a dream, but do you have the steam?