Being Slow To Respond To God
Are you spiritually lazy? Are you largely indifferent toward the Lord? The lazy servant of Matthew 25:30 helps us to know if we have this problem.
The lazy slave was slow to respond to God. He had time to use his talent but didn’t. The word for lazy here also means ‘pokey.’ The zealous servants, on the other hand, responded immediately. This pokey servant also lacked faith. Faith is active but he buried his talent. In addition, he lacked a positive view of and strong emotions for his master. He viewed him as being a demanding, stern, ‘hard’ person.
This apathy toward the Lord is wrong. Not only does it insult His character but it rejects Him as the source of joy. This is why the good servants said, ‘Look!’ They wanted to partake in their master’s joy. They didn’t want to be ‘useless’ either through inactivity or activity not directed by their master. At some level, they probably also wanted to avoid the judgment and removal from service that comes from being indifferent to Him.
The good servants were eager to do what He assigned them to do. We can hear their excitement in their child-like comment, ‘Look!’ They also knew that their master cared for them. He demonstrated this in how he lavishly rewarded them.
May we start each day by getting ourselves happy in God (Jeremiah 7:13, LB) and denying ourselves our own little ‘joys’ so we can experience the best joy – that of pleasing our Lord, Master, Friend, and Beloved, Jesus the Christ.
Unending pleasure in the next life; training for godly pleasure in this one.