Millions of advertising dollars are spent every year on enticing you to embrace the vice of hastiness. What at first blush might look like a road to greater liberty, ease, and comfort, is instead a quicksand pathway which will quickly bog you down into the swamp of discontent, greed, and lust.
Porn is not a shortcut to sexual fulfillment, although that is what it disguises itself as. Sports betting is an alluring cheat code to generating fat stacks of cash, but the House always wins. Pinterest boards present a minimalist mirage of tidiness, but underpinning (pun intended) that minimalism is often an avoidance of diligence. Every other Silicon Valley start up is aimed at trying to part you from your money with the enticing promise of shortcutting hard work.
Proverbs, in particular, warns us of the sinister nature of haste. Hasty feet are described as sinful (Pr. 19:2). Hastiness in wealth building is unlikely to be paired with moral innocence (Pr. 28:20). Hasty speech is not just foolish, it makes you worse than a fool (Pr. 29:20). Starvation follows hastiness like ash follows fire (Pr. 21:5).
These warnings against a “get out over your skis” hastiness are not set in contrast to slothfulness. Rather, the virtue which stands opposite of this vice of hastiness is that of steady steps of diligence and faithfulness. According to biblical wisdom this is how you build a lasting foundation. Persistently ordering your steps to walk in the ways of God’s Covenant is how you enjoy the good life.
However, apart from Christ our feet our cinder blocks when it comes to obedience, and jet packs when it comes to gratifying our lusts. So, God freely offers to you, through Christ, a new heart which transforms your entire moral framework. By faith then, your feet can plod away at faithfulness.
Prayer of Confession
Father God,
Man, in His sin against you, has sought to harvest before sowing. Yet You have made this world in such a way that in order to reap we must sow good seed. Forgive us for the rebellion against Your created order. Give us hands and feet that are diligent, and free us from the hastiness and the sloth of our culture. Your word promises that in the new covenant the reapers will overtake the sowers, but this is only comes as we abide in Your covenant mercies. So, where we have broken Your Word, and sought out our own paths, have mercy upon us, oh Lord. You have called Your church to truth in the inward parts, so we now confess our individual sins to You. Selah. We do this in Jesus’ mighty name, and Amen.
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