Fulfilling Your New Year's Resolutions

February, 2004

by: Dave Hintz

In the last article I introduced a threefold plan for establishing discipline in your life, in hopes that following this procedure will enable you to fulfill your New Year's resolutions as you conform your will to God's:

1. Repent of your laziness.
2. Harness the Power of Discipline.
3. Form Righteous Habits.

In this article we will examine laziness, so that we may be able to recognize it and repent of it, as called for in the first step. The book of Proverbs provides us with an excellent diagnostic tool for discerning laziness. The Proverbial sluggard is the embodiment of lazy, slothful behavior, and he is characterized by the following:

1. The love of sleep. Proverbs 26:14“As the door turns on its hinges, So does the sluggard on his bed.” Lots of motion — but no progress! Sleep is a necessary element for a healthy life, but too much sleep is destructive.
2. Being more of a nuisance than a help. Proverbs 10:26“Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, So is the lazy one to those who send him.” Vinegar on the teeth and smoke in the eyes are not necessarily lethal, but they do irritate you; so does a sluggard who won't get the job done. These dead weights do nothing but hinder those who work hard at the task.
3. A know–it–all attitude. Proverbs 26:16“The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer.” The sluggard lives in a fantasy world that prevents him from being a useful part of the real world, but he can tell everybody else what to do. He's never succeeded at anything in his own life, but he can tell others how to succeed.
4. An expert in excuses. Proverbs 22:13“The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside; I shall be slain in the streets!’” The diligent man or woman can always find a reason to work, but the sluggard always has an excuse for not working. Billy Sunday defined an excuse as “the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie,” and he was right. People who are good at making excuses are rarely good at doing anything else.

Convicted yet? Good! But I suspect that there is a contingent of you believers who have escaped the exhortations of this article. You may not sleep in until noon, and you are not known as a whiner at work, but you still might be a sluggard if you are not doing as you ought. Most, if not all of us, have fallen in the area of laziness, and many do not realize the gravity of this sin. Warren Wiersbe notes, “The biggest thieves of all are the lazy people who could work but won't, the people who consume what others produce but produce nothing for others to use.” When you surf the net instead of working diligently at the office, you are stealing from your boss. Similarly, as redeemed sinners saved unto good works (Eph. 2:10), when you fritter your free time away with hobbies, television, and fraternizing at the expense of your ministry to the local church, you steal from God. Laziness is not defined by simply doing nothing, but by not doing what you should be doing. How fanatically do you fight against your sin (Heb. 12:3-4)? How fervently do you commune with God in prayer (1 Thess. 5:17)? How faithfully do you serve in the church (1 Pet. 4:10)? More often than not, one who falls short in these areas possesses a heart given to spiritual laziness. Laziness takes different shapes and forms within a person's life. This sneaky sin must be sought out and dealt with, before you can have any hope of fulfilling your New Year's resolutions. The process begins with a contrite confession of sin, acknowledging to God where you have fallen short. Once you have turned away from this sin, you must harness the power of discipline, which we will discuss in the next article.