What is your Lion (Proverbs 26:13-16) 

In this passage from the book of Proverbs we see some characteristics of slothfulness. The first thing is the fact that the slothful man says that there is a lion in the street or in the way. This is just an excuse for whatever it is that is he does not want to do. Rarely ever would there be a lion in the street. No matter how hard working we are there is most likely some area in all our lives that we are slothful in. It could be in our finances; it could be in attending to the details of our family, or fixing the house and taking care of the lawn. Maybe it is in spiritual matters, such as prayer, bible reading, witnessing or just going to church.  Whatever it is it wouldn’t take us long to come up with an excuse for why we are slothful in these matter. But what we must ask ourselves is it really a good excuse or an imaginary lion in the streets.

Chain reference on slothfulness :

Proverbs 12:24 (The slothful are under tribute)

• Sometimes we are in debt because of slothfulness

Proverbs 12:27 (The slothful doesn’t eat that which he kills)

• Sometimes we are slothful in regards to our substances or what God has given us.

Proverbs 18:9 (The slothful in his work is a brother to him that is a waster)

• Slothfulness and wasting go hand in hand.

Proverbs 21:25 (The desire of the slothful killeth him)

• The slothful have many desires but will not work to achieve them.

Ecclesiastes 10:18 (Slothfulness causes the house to fall in)

• Many times something breaks or falls apart and we think how did that happen? Then we think about it and realize it was the little things that led to the falure.

The downward progression of slothfulness : 

The first step connected with slothfulness is an excuse (verse 13). Then that leads to laziness as we see in verse 14. After laziness comes stubbornness verse 15 (here is a refusal to work). The last step is conceit verse 16. Here we see someone that cannot be helped no matter how many people reason with him.

What is your lion?

The key here then is to catch it in the excuse stage and overcome the lion that it is your path. Below we will look at some common lions (excuses) that we use and some examples of these in the scriptures.

1)  The lion of inability (Exodus 4:10-13)

• Even after Moses does the miracles he is still complaining about his inability to speak well.
• God can work around our inability.

2)  The lion unbelief (Mark 6:5-6)

• In the passage here it says that Jesus could do no great work in Nazareth, and he marveled at their unbelief.
• We cannot let the excuses of unbelief stop us.

3)  The lion of Discouragement (Numbers 21:1-4)

• Many times we try something and fail but we should not let that stop us. Think of Edison and the light bulb.

4)  The lion of our enemy (2 Kings 6:13-17)

• We cannot let our enemy stand in our way either. Note in the passage that there are always more with us than against us.