Proverbs 19.15 says, slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep, and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. Not everyone who is slothful has their eyes closed and are snoring all day. They are technically awake. Their eyes are open and they may be physically moving around and doing things, but in the real sense of the word, they're asleep. Of course, this proverb can be applied to the physical state of slothfulness, and we see this plenty in these last days. There's a shortage of workers in the United States because people simply refuse to work or to apply themselves. And even among many who are employed, they remain unskilled laborers, too lazy to acquire skills that would make them qualified to work jobs that pay better and provide benefits for themselves and their families. The fact is the number of those who never leave home and to some extent, if not completely, spend their lives mooching off of their parents or anyone else who will take them in and enable them is really staggering. There has never been a time in history that has seen anything like what we have today, but there is another layer of slothful men and women that we call the homeless. While a certain percentage include people with severe mental and physical disabilities, The mass majority of homeless want to be homeless. They want to live on the streets. They choose to be homeless where they can bum for drugs and stoop to prostitution to pay for their drugs much of the time without having to work and be responsible and pay bills. We've often warned Christians that handing such homeless people cash is doing nothing but enabling them. You're paying for drugs and prostitutes when you give most homeless people cash. We don't have time for a long discourse on that, but we urge you to direct them toward a biblically sound inner-city mission where they can actually be helped. and don't give them cash or gift cards or anything that they can barter or sell for drugs and sex. And while these people are also spiritually slothful and have rejected God and his word from their lives, Not all spiritually slothful people are homeless or living at home and mooching. The fact is the mass majority of people who do work pay their bills and so forth. They're not mooching or bumming, but they're in a deep sleep spiritually. As a matter of fact, most professing Christians today are in a spiritual coma. Many such comatose professing Christians have existed throughout church history, and that includes the early church. In Ephesians 5.14, Paul is speaking to the church at Ephesus. there in the first century of Christianity, and he wrote, quote, wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light, end quote. He wrote that to Christians. I could go on and on about this, but the fact is that if you're not a hardworking, Bible-reading, praying, born-again Christian, then you are one of those who need to wake up. Paul doesn't spend time debating with folks about the matter. Those who are sleepwalking through life know who they are, and Paul just simply continues in verses 15 through 17 to admonish the sleepers to wake up and then says, see then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. That can't happen if you're spiritually slothful. That can't happen if you're in the word and you're praying and living for the Lord the way you ought to. So that's the question I put forth to you, a question I had to ask myself in the past. Is that you? If so, then repent and believe God's word. Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep. And assuming that you're a believer, as most listening to these devotionals are, take time to do self-examination. And if you're spiritually asleep, then meditate on this passage in Ephesians 5, 14 through 17, and then simply obey what you're reading. As we sing in the old hymn, trust and obey. There's no other way to be happy in Jesus. This is a wake-up call from God and His Word.