Have you ever noticed when a worship leader or a pastor invites people to come forward for prayer, it is usually an invitation to have the elders or prayer leaders pray over a difficult life-situation? It is often perceived that a difficult situation has come about by a series of unfortunate choices. Many in our American culture are reticent to move forward, as that might be perceived as a statement of weakness in our social circles.

There is a passage in Jeremiah that never made it into a memory verse packet. It reads, “Accursed is the man that is slack in doing the Lord’s work.” Another translation says, “Cursed is the man that is lax in doing the Lord’s work.” [Jeremiah 47:10a] It is easy to miss this statement as it exists in a chapter that appears to have little relevance to our day.

Lest we think this is simply an unusual stand-alone passage, notice that the thought is not far from the idea in Rev 3:16 where the message to the church is a warning against being complacent about serving the Lord. ^“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” If we, or those around us, are lukewarm, we are in grave danger. If we are slow or slack in doing the Lord’s work, we are, in fact, in a difficult spot. It is likely that we are in desperate need of prayer.

Jesus gave it all up for us. We are called to use our considerable talents to advance The Cause with our time and treasure. We who are living in America are among the most blessed. How many of our ten talents are we prepared to give back to Jesus? Less than a full commitment to the Lord puts us in that difficult spot. Praying, with a good grasp of the scriptures in our lives, is key to having a zeal for service, great joy, and abundant delight.