The application is first of all, dare I use this term, to a failing believer. Well supposing I am spiritually cold, I am making no progress. I have almost left off praying. I am succumbing to various sins. I am a failing believer. I have desires for progress. I have desire for holiness and blessing. But my being will not cooperate. I just will not mortify my sins. I will not examine myself. I will not pray. I will not try. What a desperate position to be in! The hands refuse to labour. I am not responding. I have got to pray to earnestly to God and take myself in hand. There are no gains, as the Victorians used to say, without pains. I have to examine myself and mortify. There is work to be done, by the help of God. Or let us say a failing church, reduced to a few people. They long to see converts and visitors and blessing. They long for these things, but nobody will serve. The hands are in rebellion. They will not obey.
Why do the hands refuse to labour? Well because they have never been trained, they have never been urged. If somebody has an abdominal operation and loses the use of all those muscles that help in walking, they have to go out and walk maybe ten yards, and then the next day, 15 yards, and the day after that twenty yards, little by little. They must train themselves to strengthen up and walk a little more each day until they can walk fluently and easily. And it is the same in sanctification. Try – that is what we have to tell ourselves. Each day I will focus more attention on these things, and train my body and my mind to respond to what I know is right. So the proverb is about fearing indolence.