By Proverbs makes many sobering statements about the sluggard. A good number of those statements are about the inventive genius of the sluggard when it comes to excuses. You might be the sluggard if you always have an excuse at hand.
Here are some of the common categories of excuses that, if you find them entering your own thoughts and coming out of your own mouth, will warn you of this rather insidious vice called laziness.
1. The excuse of exaggerating the potential negative consequences of doing the right thing.
The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”
Proverbs 22:13
2. The excuse of exaggerating the number of obstacles to doing the right thing.
The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!”
Proverbs 26:13
3. The excuse of exaggerating the effort already exerted to keep you from completing what you’ve begun.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
Proverbs 26:15
it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
4. The excuse of exaggerating the need for rest instead of simply getting up and staying up until the task is completed
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
Proverbs 6:9-10
When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
Show your excuses, and Proverbs will show you where you stand on the Sluggard Scale.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9