Proverbs 14:1, “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”
If you lack character, no one can give it to you. Why is it that one woman picks up after herself at home, but another is lazy and sloppy? In a word, character. Why is it that one man indulges in dirty magazines, but another resolves to “set no wicked thing before mine eyes” (Psalms 101:3). Character! No one has perfect character, but it is something that everyone should work at continually. What is character? It is the subconscious doing of right, that is, a habit.
Many wives are irresponsible slobs at home. They leave their shoes for the husband to trip over. They let food spoil in the refrigerator because they are too lazy and characterless to keep inventory and cook the food. She has a bad habit of not pulling her weight in the marriage, not providing for her household. She has no interest in becoming a chef. Shame on you if I am ringing your bell dear friend. That all boils down to CARING.
People without character are people who just don't care. When you care you do what is necessary and needful. Proverbs 18:1-2, “Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” Nothing worthwhile in life just happens by chance, you must apply yourself. The harder I work, the luckier I get.
How do you obtain personal character if you don't have it? You get character by pretending that you have it, doing that which is right until it becomes a habit. Psychologists say if you do something consistently for 21 days it becomes a habit. If you're not a good Christian, then pretend to be one and eventually you'll become one. But whether or not you get character ultimately all boils down to one all important word, CARING. Do you care? If you don't care, then just do nothing and that is exactly what will change, nothing.
You cannot ask another person to help you have character, to do the things that you alone are supposed to do without being asked. Life doesn't work that way! If you don't care, nobody can make you care. Pastor Jack Hyles taught that love is thinking. When you love someone, you take the time to think about them. You plan a time to think about their needs, burdens and what you can do to be a blessing to them. Philippians 2:3-5, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Jesus cared about others. He looked for ways to be helpful and a blessing to his neighbours and even strangers.
For example: If you feel no love for someone, then you put them on your prayer list (every Christian ought to have a written prayer list). As you think about that person's burdens, heartaches, losses and trials, and pray for them daily, you will start feeling concern and you might even begin to care. Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Most people get this verse wrong. Most people think that your heart follows your treasure, but that's not what the Bible says. Scripture tells us that our heart follows our treasure. That is, wherever you invest your time, money and resources, that is where your heart will follow. As you think about, have empathy and pray for someone, you are making an investment in them, which will eventually cause you to develop feelings for that individual.
We are living in a characterless generation today. Character is doing what is right when no one else is looking. Character is generated from a heart that cares. If you lack character friend, the $64,000 question is: Do you care? If you don't care, nothing else matters. I have faithfully warned countless pastors that repentance does not mean to forsake one's sinful ways, yet they lacked the godly concern to repent of their misunderstood repentance.
As a fundamentalist Bible preacher, I can help someone who lacks character if they care enough to heed my godly wisdom, but I cannot help someone who doesn't care. If that is you, then cry out to God in prayer to give you a pure heart, so that you will start caring. Sadly, very few people in this world care. That includes most professed Christians as well.
It is never okay not to care. If your spouse is continually upset with you for not pulling your own weight, then repent of your wicked heart and ask God to help you start caring.
If you are a wicked pastor who has been warned that you're preaching another gospel by teaching that you must turn from your sinning to be saved, then repent and ask God to forgive you, and stop preaching that sinful trash. Right doctrine matters!
“America's full of seminaries and colleges and Bible institutes that are dead as last year's Christmas tree. You know why? They got a bunch of professors that never witness, never tell anybody about Jesus; they got a whole reservoir of spoiled truth. They're spoiled rotten! Their truth is spoiled rotten! They know about justification but never tell anybody's that's not justified about it. They know about sanctification but never tell anybody who's not sanctified about it. And our churches are drying up today because our pastor today are being trained by a bunch of dead theologians whose truth is spoiled.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Spoiled Rotten”
We sadly live in a spoiled rotten culture in the United States. This is the age of blame! A lazy wife blames her husband for picking on her, when she is the problem. She has no one to blame but herself for not aspiring to be a Proverbs 31 woman. She is lazy and that is no one's fault except hers. And God pity the rebellious female who always tries to make everything 50/50. Well what about him? Well, what about him? I'm preaching at you, you lazy dog!
No one can give you character if you are lazy. I guarantee you that if a troubled wife goes to meet with a psychiatrist that not one time in a hundred will any doctor ever diagnose her as being not right with God, lazy, rebellious and a spoiled brat. They will never tell her THE TRUTH. No, they'll instead diagnose her with clinical depression, a chemical imbalance of the brain, unbalanced hormones, regressive anger from her youth, post traumatic stress, childhood abuse or an overbearing husband—anything except the truth that she is the problem! If you are lazy, look in the mirror. You are to blame!
I read an article recently by the Independent Institute titled: 'The Age Of The Lazy American,' in which the writer states...
There are no doubt many other factors at work. Citing just one: the decline in religious affiliation probably on balance has led to a lessening of a sense of duty to work hard, to try to strive. SOURCE
Wow, Dr. Richard Vedder nailed it! There is a woeful vacuum in today's church pulpits of hard preaching like we used to hear a century ago. When's the last time that you heard any pastor preach against the sin of laziness?
Here are some negative character traits of the lazy person:
- A lazy person throws food in the garbage because they didn't use it before it rotted. Proverbs 12:27, “The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.”
- The way of a lazy person is painful like a thorny bush. Proverbs 15:19, “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.” Pastor Harry Ironside exegetes this verse as: “Difficulties abound in the mind of the slothful man. His life seems surrounded by thorns. He has many excuses for not acting at once according to what he knows is right. The upright, learning his duty, presses on and finds his way made plain before him as he takes one step after another.”
- A lazy person is wasteful Proverbs 18:9, “He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.”
- Lazy people do without. Proverbs 19:15, “Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.” That is of course, unless you receive welfare that somebody else labored to provide for you. If you succeed without sacrificing, it is only because someone else sacrificed without succeeding.
- A lazy person is their own worst enemy. Proverbs 21:25, “The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.”
- Lazy people make excuses. Proverbs 22:13, “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.”
- A lazy person is irresponsible. Proverbs 24:30-31, “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.”
- A lazy person sleeps way too much. Proverbs 26:14, “As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.”
As the old wise adage says: If the shoe fits, wear it!
Thank you for reading my ministry blog. Jesus is precious!
