In Romans 12:6-13 Paul says,
“In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.”
Laziness is the byproduct of the lack of purpose and vision. Purpose is the meaning behind our lives, it’s the work we are created to get into. Vision is the mental picture of what it looks like to live out your purpose. When you know what to do, you can get into it. Paul says we have all been given gifts and it is our duty to employ them. Whatever your gift is, use it, Paul says. If your gift is prophesy, then do it. If your gift is serving, then do it. If your gift is teaching, then do it. Whatever your gift is, do it. Do it. Do it.
In verse 11 Paul says, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” The word lazy in the greek means: tardy, indolent; irksome:- grievous, slothful. Tardy and slothful have the implication that we are required to show up now. Grievous is the byproduct of dragging our feet or worse our total neglect of action in employing our gifts.
The word in the greek for “work hard” means: Speed, despatch, eagerness, earnestness:-business, (earnest) care(fulness), diligence, forwardness, haste. This word has the implication of being on a mission so necessary and so vital that it must be executed with the utmost care and diligence. And there is an understanding that this mission is urgent.
The word “enthusiastically” in the greek means: to be hot (boil, of liquids; or glow, of solids), i.e. (figuratively) be fervid (earnest):- be fervent. Fervid means: intensely enthusiastic or passionate, especially to an excessive degree; burning, hot, or glowing. To be fervid is the byproduct of knowledge and understanding that you are a solution to a problem. Meaning there are people with a particular kind of problem and you hold their solution. You can identify the problem that you are called to solve by becoming aware of what really bothers you. That problem you are called to solve causes you to become “hot” because you see the malfunction in it and you know that if they only knew what you know or if they could just experience what you have experienced they could taste and experience function and wholeness and it would change their life forever.
You have been given a gift for the explicit purpose to use it. So use it. The problem you solve fuels your passion to take swift and earnest action in order to set people free through the use of your gift. There are people waiting for what you have to offer, so refuse to be tardy or slothful because it’s grievous to watch people suffer because the people with the solution refuse to use it. Get sold on who you are, what you are called to do and who called you to do it and take action like other people’s lives depended on it. Because they do. Don’t be motivated out of fear, be motivated out of the belief that you were born for this, you were born for greatness, you are exactly what God intended and exactly what this world needs. So let your light shine by taking action like you mean it!
Do it!