As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who employ and send him. – Proverbs 10:26, Amplified Bible (AMP)

I ran into a fellow the other day that told me a remarkable story about his workplace. The company he works for employs a little more than 1,000 people, and last year the company had to replace around half of its workforce. Some of the employees retired. Some quit. But most of those lost to the company – roughly 90% – were fired. The main reason they were fired? Not showing up for work on time, or at all. Interestingly, the man told me that last year was a good year, meaning that, in a typical year, the company has to fire even more people than they did last year for the offense of slothfulness.

The book of Proverbs contains many verses regarding the sin of slothfulness. Most point to the pain that sluggards themselves will suffer as a result of their poor character. But some verses, like Proverbs 10:26, demonstrate that the sluggard’s sin doesn’t affect just the sluggard; it also affects those around them. It costs the company mentioned above millions of dollars per year in lost productivity and training costs as they constantly lose and hire employees. It costs the families of the sluggards who won’t show up for work the funds they need for their daily bread and other expenses. Just like with every other sin imaginable, the argument that “I’m not hurting anyone but myself!” is a farse; slothfulness hurts the offender and those who are offended by it.

If you struggle with the sin of slothfulness, how do you overcome it? The same way you overcome any sin – not with your own strength, but with God’s strength. The older I get, the richer and more precious Philippians 2:13 becomes. As the Amplified Bible renders it:

[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Diligence and excellence bring God good pleasure, satisfaction, and delight. If you want to have the power to engage in the things He values, then you must access His power by daily requesting that He give it to you. Your natural power cannot achieve the supernatural results He requires, so if you rely on your own power, you will fail.