Weekly Devotion

We are continuing the theme of what is important in our lives. We have looked at our faith and how God should receive the number one position in our lives. We have looked at our family and friends and how important our relationship to them is. And we are now looking at how important it is to look after yourself in order to fully enjoy this wonderful life that God has given you.

First of all we said we should concentrate to look after our thought life, in order to maintain good and pure thoughts. We also said that we must give the Holy Spirit free rein in us and by so doing bring forth His fruit and portrait Jesus to the world. And the more the Spirit takes hold of us, the happier we will be.

Today I would like to discuss the power of living in the here and now, the power that lies in living in the present moment. A lot of people forfeit that power by longing for a better future. I've heard a lot of people saying something to the effect of: I'll be happy when I can finish studying, I'll be happy when I get married, I'll be happy when I have kids, I'll be happy once the kids grow older, I'll be happy when I can stop working, I'll be happy when I can retire, I'll be happy when I can have grandchildren and so on and so on. And before you know it your life is over. You have wished each special part of your life to be over. And the sad part is that you can never have it back again. There is an amazing power in enjoying the present moment.

I am talking to myself today as I find myself frequently wishing that this particular year is over. The Lord has given me a special assignment this year, but it is not a very popular assignment in the eyes of the people around me. They all want me to join my profession again and to continue on a path that I know is not right for me at the moment. So it is tough for me to be surrounded by people who don't understand the Lord's plan for me. So I often find myself wishing that this time of testing and being obedient to the Lord would end. But the Lord rebuked me and said that He gave this year for me as a gift to grow closer to Him by doing what He requires of me. I shouldn't listen to what other people are saying. He wants me to follow Him. And above all He wants me to enjoy the present. If it wasn't for the comments of other people I would be loving this year, but because I listen to them, I am feeling down in the dumps. But I made a decision just this week that I am going to enjoy the here and now. I am going to enjoy every minute of it, because the Lord is in it with me. He is strengthening me and He is guiding me where I need to go.

After all in Psalm 32:8 He says; "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advice you and watch over you."

Isn't it an awesome verse? An amazing comfort. The Lord will direct our lives and we can be safe in it, knowing that He knows best. He is the great I AM, not the I WILL BE or the I WAS. God is present in the present and if we continue to live in the here and now, we will be comforted in His Divine Presence!

Now of course you can dream dreams for your future and you can make plans for what lies ahead and be responsible with your money. You can visualize yourself as you would like to become and talk to the Lord about it, but never forget the present moment. That is why it is called the 'present', as it is truly a gift from God. The Lord is in today, we just need to look out for Him. He will display Himself to you if you are willing to search for Him.

Father God, we are humble in knowing that You will direct our paths. You are the One that walks in front and opens up the doors for us. We are determined to start enjoying the here and now. In Jesus' Name. Amen

As I have mentioned before, if your foundation (your faith) is rock solid and you built your house with Jesus as the cornerstone and time with your family as your bricks, then you are ready to face any curveball that life can throw at you. At least you know your house will stand.

Now looking after yourself inside the house made with bricks is also important. We have discussed your thought life and how it affects everything you do and how you should nurture your thoughts to think only pure thoughts, in order to give you victory in life.

Another way to walk in victory is to apply the fruits of the Spirit in your life. In case you cannot remember them all, here they are again; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I know it is easier said than done. We do not always feel like wearing them like a necklace and embracing every situation with them. In our rushed life, we do not even have time to think about them, let alone memorize them. Life is not that easy. It is difficult to be patient, when a slow moving truck moved right in front of you when you are already late for a meeting, it is difficult to have peace, when there is gossiping all around you, it is difficult to be faithful when the secretary looks sexier than ever, it is difficult to exercise self control when someone parked on your parking space, it is difficult to love someone with a godly love, when all they do is use you for their own benefit, it is difficult to have joy when your husband has been retrenched, it is difficult, I know.

But despite all this know that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. He is the One displaying the fruit. You cannot do it out of your own strength. You will most certainly fail. The only way to succeed is to grow closer and closer to Him that lives within you. Allow Him to take over the reins of your life. Allow Him access into all areas. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit, but be free to allow Him to move. God loves a willing spirit. The closer you grow to Him, the more freely His fruit will flow. And when it does it will lead to an inner peace in your life and a sense of perfect harmony. Despite storms raging around you, your house will stand.

Remember what the Word of God says:

"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives." Galatians 5:24, 25

Let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. God wants us to represent Him here on earth and with His Spirit to lead and guide us, we will portrait His love to the world on a whole new level. Give Him free rein to display the fruit of His Spirit through your daily life. You will stand amazed, it will be worth it.

Lord Jesus, You are awesome and we are so glad that You can be our cornerstone. Thank you for assisting us in our life's journey. Please help us to grow so that the fruit we show will be the fruit of Your Spirit. Amen

If your house's foundation is right (your faith in God), and your cornerstone is right (Jesus Christ), and your bricks are right (quality time with your spouse, children and close family), then you can start living in your house. You will be ready to weather any storm, because your house would be strong enough to endure. Now you can start looking after yourself, the Temple of God. You need to make sure that you are in the best shape you can possibly be in, in order to be able to do what God wants you to do. I am going to talk a bit more about how to look after yourself in the next few weeks.

I spoke last week about getting your house in order. God is a God of order and cleanliness and therefore we need to look after ourselves and grow in Christ to be the best we can be.

First of all we need to get our thought life in order. We need to start thinking about what we are thinking about. We cannot allow random thoughts to come in and mess up our neat house. I always thought that we don't have any control over what comes into our minds, but we do! This is such an intense subject, I can continue for weeks on this, but the point I would like to make now, is that thoughts can influence your whole life.

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do." Proverbs 4:23

I would like to repeat it; it affects everything you do. That is why it is so crucially important that you don't allow any thought to simply slip in. You need to focus on what is good and pure, you need to practice it.

The other day I was upset over something and I had to go to that person and clear the air. Now I could only see the person in a weeks' time, so I practiced what I wanted to say to her all the time in my head and every time I got upset all over again and it ruined my day. I then forced myself to stop. I realized that it is not going to help to rehearse what I was going to say for the whole week and be upset all the time. It was stealing my joy. I then purposefully stopped myself every time I wanted to think about it. I forced myself to be in the moment and to enjoy the here and now. I will think about the situation again when I see her. And you know what, it worked. I wasn't upset for the rest of the week and cleared the air the next. We have power over our thoughts and we need to exercise it.

Another good idea is to memorize Scripture and to verbally say it out loud every time your thoughts drift in the wrong direction. Something in the order of "Thank you Jesus for being here with me. Thank you that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Thank you that You created me in Your image and that I am wonderfully made. Today is the day that You have made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Therefore I look forward to this day and all that You have in store for me."

The Lord wants to bless you and He wants you to obtain victory over your thoughts. In your thought life lies the key to unlocking a lot of potential in your life. And of course the devil knows this and wants to soil your mind with his evil thoughts. But ignore him and focus on God and on what goes on in the heavenlies. Therein lies great power.

"Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:2

Lord, thank you for giving us the victory through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you that we can walk through this life with You and that You will give us the strength to control our thought life. Amen

We are discussing the bricks in our lives in order to have a fulfilling life, a life that can weather any storm and still come out strong at the other end. God should be our foundation and Jesus Christ our cornerstone. On this foundation and cornerstone we can start building our house. The bricks we use are our close family, our spouse, our kids, our parents, our siblings etc. These bricks are the most important (besides the cornerstone and foundation), because without them, the house will be pretty lonely. And without a deep relationship (which is the cement) with them, the house will battle to stand. It is only after getting our foundation and bricks and cement right that we get to another important aspect of the house, namely ourselves.

We need to live in the house and we need to be comfortable in this house. We need to be happy and value ourselves like God does. Now there are various ways of being happy with ourselves and I am going to discuss a couple of them over the next few weeks. But for a start know that inside the house you must look after yourself. As I have said before, your body is the Temple of God and what you do with it shouldn't be taken lightly. The other day I read Leviticus again and though I know that those rules are not related to us anymore, I realized something of God's character through reading it. God likes order, cleanliness and personal hygiene.

After reading Leviticus the Lord immediately reminded me to have a good look at my own Bible. It was totally falling apart after eighteen years of use. The hinges were coming off, there were papers hanging out everywhere and even the introduction was beginning to tear. It was actually a sight for sore eyes and I never did anything about it, because I thought that it was actually a compliment as it meant that I spent a lot of time working through my Bible. After all whenever someone saw my Bible, they will definitely know that I used it! But the Lord reprimanded me and I realized that it was a disgrace to Him. It didn't honor Him, it actually showed how arrogant I got with His Word and how I actually only focused on myself. I then took tape and bound my Bible again. I mended the introduction and sorted out all the notes I had inside. And you know what; it was actually such a blessing to me. It looked respectable again and ready to be used once more. And 'strangely' enough, I felt as if it 'spoke' to me again. The Lord likes order.

And it is the same with our bodies. If we are His Temple, we should make sure that our bodies are in the best condition as it can be. We cannot do with our bodies as we please if we belong to Christ, therefore I am not in favor of tattoos, piercing, smoking etc, because it defiles your temple. We need to look after ourselves and make the most of what the Lord has given to us. He is dwelling in us, and if He likes order, cleanliness and personal hygiene, then we need to shape up and make sure that our temples are nice places to live in. It has to be in the best condition that we can manage to have it in. Then we can be a good witness to Him, as our appearance is the first thing non believers see of us as Christians. We should be neat and be a representative of Him that will attract people to Him.

There is of course the other side of the coin where people focus too much on themselves and think too highly of themselves, but then we need to go back to the foundation of the house. Is the foundation right? Is the cornerstone right? Is the bricks and cement right? We need to put all these things in order before focusing on ourselves once again.

We will have a more in depth look as to how we can make sure that we are in the best condition that we can be in. But for now know, that it is not sin to look after yourself, you have to. Your temple needs to be holy, because if it is, you will have a much more intimate experience with God. He will enjoy being there and you will love having Him. You will also attract lost people to God, which is in fact our most important job here on earth.

Lord Jesus, please help us to look after ourselves. Help us to organize our time in such a way that we have time to look after ourselves and be a lovely temple for You to live in. Amen

The first and most important brick in our lives is the Lord; in fact Jesus has become the cornerstone on which we should build our houses. Our faith should be our foundation, without which our houses won't be able to stand. He should be our number one and should be our first love. We should dedicate everything we have and everything we do unto Him. He should be our everything!

2. Our family

Now the second most important brick in our lives is our family. Starting with our spouse, our kids, our parents and then on to our siblings, far off family and friends that sometimes feel closer than family.

This is also what Jesus tells us to do, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

They are the people that matters most in your life and the ones who should receive second place.  I am convinced that at your deathbed they are the ones you would want there with you, holding your hand and telling you that they love you. Definitely not your broker, lawyer and shareholders, I can promise you that!

Then why do we battle to make them the second priority? Why are we inclined to organize our lives in such a way that they receive maybe fourth or fifth place? Is it because we think that they would understand that we are busy building our careers? That we need some time to ourselves and that we need recreation that takes the whole day on Saturdays, every Saturday?

I think most of us want to receive recognition from the world, and in the back of our minds we think that our family will always be there, whether we spend quality time with them or not. But the truth is the cement of your house is your relationship with them as well as the quality time you spend with them. Without that cement your whole house will come tumbling down. Words are no substitute for deeds, and neither are presents. It is only your presence that really counts.

One preacher once said that whenever it was one of his children's' birthdays he would make sure he was home. Even if he was in China for a business trip, he would fly back for their birthday and fly back to China the next day. And you know what, I do believe that those children felt much more loved, than when he simply picked up the phone and called them. Well for some people a call would be a starting point as they forget birthdays all together and when they claim that they care about you, you struggle to believe them. Now I am not saying you must do what this preacher did, but make the effort and go the extra mile for those closest to you, help them to experience your love and see God's love in you. Play with your kids, go and watch their games, memorize their friends' names, spend quality time alone with your spouse, surprise him/her with special notes in their lunch box, come home early and have a game night with your family, treat your parents now and again, phone them and be interested in their daily living. I can go on and on, but I think you get the point.

It doesn't cost money to put them first, only time and effort on your behalf. And I can promise you it would be worthwhile. Your house will be strong, and with the right foundation, you will be able to weather any storm.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for our family and close friends. Thank you for blessing us with them. Help us to treasure them and keep them close to our hearts. Amen.

It is Ascension day today. Unfortunately a day people easily forget, because it is no longer a Public Holiday. But for us as Christians it is a very important day. Why? Because if Jesus didn't go back to heaven, we wouldn't have had the Holy Spirit with us today. And it was at the Mount of Olives where this happened. I was there in December, and what a wonderful sight it is. The Mount of Olives overlooks the whole of Jerusalem and looks directly at the Temple Mount. And this is exactly where Jesus will return to earth one day:

"On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west." Zechariah 14:4

What an amazing day that would be. It was wonderful to stand on the Mount of Olives and know that Jesus will return here and set up His Kingdom. He will enter Jerusalem as a King and reign from there during His earthly reign. I could see Him in my mind's eye walking towards the Temple Mount and rescuing His people and bringing peace to this earth.  We can look forward to that glorious day, and I know it is coming soon.

But until then, what does Ascension day mean for us? Well the most important thing for me is the change it brought in ordinary people. The disciples were ordinary people, they were not of the high society, influential or educated. And after Jesus' death they were scared out of their wits. They were trembling, hiding behind closed doors, afraid of the Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers. But what happened to them after Jesus ascended to heaven and the Holy Spirit was sent to them? They changed from trembling ordinary people, to fearless children of the Almighty God. They no longer hid behind closed doors, but boldly came out and ministered to thousands of people. Three thousand people got saved on their first day of preaching. And because of them, we can know Christ today. They went into the world, no longer afraid, and changed the world forever. Nothing was ever the same again. They are heroes today and honoured as saints.

Today we can take courage from this. The Holy Spirit can also change us from ordinary people, no matter what our background is, into fearless sons of God. If we give our lives over to Him, He will take over the reins and lead us where we need to go. He will then give us the strength and the ability to succeed. He will open doors for us and help us. We simply need to stand up and be willing to be used by Him. There are treasures on the inside of you that God wants to use. He gave you the ability to do certain things well and He wants you to use it to the glory of His Kingdom.  He will be your Rock, your Fortress, your Shepherd leading you unto green pastures.

Come and take a stand today, Ascension day 2016, and make a conscious decision to open up your lives to His Spirit. Give Him free access and allow Him to move, do not stifle Him any longer. Miracles and wonders are around the corner. We simply need to take the first step in obedience. God is waiting to take your hand. Are you ready?

Father thank you so much for the life of Jesus. He is so wonderful and worthy to be praised forever. Thank you that He is sitting at your right hand, having obtained the victory for us. Thank you that Your Spirit is with us every moment of every day. Thank you for Your power and majesty available to us. Help us to obey You one hundred percent, we love You and are thankful that we can be Your children. Hallelujah! Amen

We are discussing the different things that can occupy your time and with which you build your house (your life). We discussed things that can be regarded as building your house with straw. When you go through a difficult time in your life, these straw that you spent your time on, will not help you get through the crisis one bit. In fact it will blow away like chaff in the wind. Then you can build your house with sticks, like your work. It is important, but should not be the most significant thing that your life revolves around. Then we get the bricks in your life. Now they are the most important. These are the things that your world should revolve around. I am going to discuss them in detail over the next couple of weeks. But let's start with the most important brick. I am sure you guessed it. It is our wonderful Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

1. Our foundation - Jesus Christ

Your faith In Jesus should be the foundation of your life and should receive the number one spot. Your relationship with the Lord should be your main priority in life. That is the most important part of our new covenant with Christ:

"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." Mark 12:30.

He must be the One you think about when you get up in the morning. He must be the One you run to when you have a problem, He must be the One you share your joys and delights with, He must be the One your whole day revolves around. Involve Him in everything, because He wants to be part of everything in your life. He wants you in totality. Of course He knows you need to work and you need to spend time with your family etc, but He wants to be part of it all. Involve Him.

After all, Jesus said: "Your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern."

We therefore need to seek God first, and then all other matters will be dealt with. It was the same when the Jews returned to the Promised Land after being exiled for 70 years. They were confident and happy to be back in their own land. They built an altar to the Lord and soon started rebuilding the Temple of God. But their enthusiasm quickly withered away as the hardship of being back in their desolate country started to get to them. They had a good life back in Babylon and some of them even had good businesses there and now they returned to a deserted, gloomy wasteland open to attacks from various enemies in the region. They started to feel depressed and left the building of the Temple to try and make a living and build their own houses. Soon enough they didn't have money and to top it all off, they started to experience crop failures and rapid increasing inflation. They didn't notice that these were sent from God because they stopped building His Temple, stopped putting Him first in their lives. God had to send the prophet, Haggai to tell them to stop with worrying and caring only about their own houses and lives, but to finish His Temple. He should be first and then all other things would be given besides.

And it is the same with us. The Temple of the Holy Spirit is our bodies and we should dedicate everything in our lives to Him. We should use our temple to glorify God and give Him the attention He so thoroughly deserves.

Put God first in your life, dedicate everything to Him. Jesus and His finished work on the cross is the foundation of your brick house and without Him even the bricks in your life will amount to nothing good. Without your Foundation, the brick house will eventually come tumbling down. God wants first place, and you know what, if you give it to Him, your life will have meaning and you will have the joy of the Lord to guide you through this life!

Lord Jesus, please help us to give You the number one spot in our lives that You so thoroughly deserve. You are our everything and without You, our whole lives will amount to nothing good. Thank you for always being there for us. Amen

Last time I discussed the main stick in our lives, the thing that is more solid than the straw in our lives, but less important than the bricks and that is our work. Our work is important and should be done to the best of our ability. Our work also consumes a lot of our time and is the place where we spend most of our time (if you take sleeping out of the equation). Therefore it is a big part of our lives.

But at the end of the day it is not the most important thing. It shouldn't consume more time than is necessary. Obviously there would be times when you spend more time at work, than other times, but when the long hours become the rule rather than the exception, then it is not healthy. I remember when I audited a big company here in South Africa, the people working in accounts joked that they worked such long hours that their own dogs barked at them and their children called them 'uncle', because they did not know who they were. They thought it was funny, but I didn't laugh. I was sad.

Because you know what, your work is not going to be there for you when disaster strikes. When you are diagnosed with cancer, will they come and sit with you through each chemotherapy session? When you are paralyzed in an accident, how often do you think the people from work will come and visit you after you have been laid off at work? When you go through a divorce due to your long hours at work, sure your buddies at work will think it is just normal and encourage you to go through with it, but will they be there when you are all alone in an old age home? When your children want nothing to do with you, because you weren't there for them, will the work invite you over for Christmas? Will they really care for you?

I can go on and on, but I am sure you get the point. No one on their death bed wishes that they spent more time at work. They long for time wasted not being with their loved ones.

Work is only a stick. If your house is solely built out if it, I have bad news my friend. The first big storm will blow it apart and what do you have left then?

As I said before, work is important, but it is not the most important thing. You need balance in your life. Work and do your best, but then leave and go be with those that matter the most. Work on the bricks in your life and make sure that you have a house that will not be blown apart in the first storm that comes your way.

Lord, help us to see what is more important in our lives. Help us to discern and know where to draw the line. You know best. Amen

We have discussed the straw in our lives; things that take up time unnecessarily, things that will blow away the minute the storm strikes. Things that the devil wants us occupied with, so that he can come as the wolf and steal our joy and peace, because our houses are not built with solid bricks. He is so very clever. He knows that if we don't fill ourselves continually with the Holy Spirit with Jesus as our foundation, we are easy prey for him. I hope after these past few weeks you have looked at the straw in your life and made a conscious effort to cut it out of your life.

Now it is time to discuss the sticks in our lives, things that are more important than the straw, but less important than the bricks. Things that will take longer to blow away, but that will still blow away when a strong enough wind comes up.

The best example for me to use of sticks in our lives is our work. Now let me explain this carefully. Work is important. It was one of the curses placed on Adam after sin entered the human race. God declared that we will work hard in order to survive.

"All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day." Genesis 3:17-19

Work is something that men must do and be proud of. Females can also work of course, but that is a whole other discussion. The point is that work was ordained by God. We have to do something in order to look after ourselves and our families. And we have to do it to the best of our ability. The whole Bible is full of verses, stressing the importance of not being lazy and passive, but that we must work and keep busy. We all have a purpose to fulfill. Imagine a world where no one worked. It would be total and utter chaos, especially if evil stays as rampant as it is today. Imagine no doctors to heal the sick, no police to maintain law and order, no farmers to produce food, no teachers to educate the young, no bankers to keep our money safe, absolute chaos.

Work is therefore important as it consumes most of our time. We must use our talents to be the best we can be. The working place must be a better place because we are there, no matter what our position is. A few years ago I met a lady who was a cleaner for 35 years and what an inspirational lady! She said that she knew her purpose was to be a cleaner and she was going to do it to the best of her ability. I was so motivated by her positive outlook in life and her knowledge of the Lord; it was like a breath of fresh air simply talking to her. The people who had the privilege of working with her, was blessed, I am convinced of it!

Also God has placed you in certain positions to proclaim His Word and His Kingdom to a fallen world. Right there where you are, you have the ability to represent Him and draw people closer to Him. The workplace is your missionary field.

Work is a whole subject to talk about. I will be able to write a whole book about it, but for now, just know your work is important and that is why it is a stick in your life. It doesn't define who you are, but it is a place where you can live out your religion and influence people positively because of it. It is a place where you can tell people about Jesus and it is a place where the Lord can also build character into your life. Be positive about it and give your utmost best. And when the Lord tells you to move into a different occupation or to a different company, then move. He will lead you where you need to be, trust Him, He is faithful. He gave you many talents and He wants you to use them to His glory.

Lord, thank you for our jobs. Thank you that You gave it to us. Bless us there and help us to grow and build our character so that we can be someone You can be proud of. Also please give us the courage to talk to people about You and to glorify and exalt Your Kingdom in the process. Amen

We have discussed a couple of things that can waste our time and be regarded as straw in our lives. In other words things that will wither away the moment something serious happens in your life. I think there are many 'straws' and you can probably name a couple that I am not even thinking about right now, but my main aim in writing this is for you to start thinking about it and noticing it when the 'straws' pop up in your life to steal your time and to drain you even more. That is the main aim of the devil. He wants to steal your time, drain you to a point of giving up and most importantly cause you to drift away from the Lord and from spending quality time with Him. That is ultimately all he wants, he wants you far away from the Lord drifting around in this life with no aim, no foundation and no hope for a better future.

John 10:10, "The thief's (devil's) purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My (Jesus') purpose is to give life in all its fullness."

The devil, amongst other things, wants to steal your time. He wants to fill your life with straw and whenever you go through a crisis he is going to laugh at you when you fall flat without any support/foundation.  But even more than that he is going to be so pleased when you start blaming the Lord for the crisis, blaming Him for not supporting you through it as you think He should. He simply loves it when we fall away from God and God's best for our lives.

Wasting time is an art for some people. It has always amazed me at work the big difference in time it takes for different people to do the same task. I know we are not all the same, but sometimes the discrepancies is just mindboggling and when you start watching those that take the longest you'll be amazed at how they can waste time. Typically they will slowly get up from their workstation and stroll over to make coffee, then they will stand there and drink it, then they will strike up a conversation with anyone who comes past, then after a while they will stroll back to their seats and check their email, they will then email their friends and thereafter catch up on the latest on Face book, then they will stroll over to the restroom and stay there for 20 minutes, then they'll stroll back and check their email again and so it goes on and on. Sounds familiar? And the worst part is that they will work long hours just to show their boss that they 'put in the extra mile' while back at the ranch they wasted most of the day! And now their family is paying for it, because they come home late.

The Bible warns us against wasting time and being lazy:

'Lazy people don't even cook the game they catch, but the diligent make use of everything they find." Proverbs 12:27

"Yet, we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and wasting time meddling in other people's business. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we appeal to such people - no, we command them: Settle down and get to work. Earn your own living." 2 Thessalonians 3:11, 12

Don't allow the devil to steal your time. Don't waste another minute just breathing air. Do your work to the best of your ability, and spend the rest of your time on more important things. Make the bricks in your life the main priority. We will get to the bricks a little later, but I am sure most of you can guess that the most important brick is the Lord and thereafter your family. Make them your main focus and pray that God will give you the strength and the wisdom to avoid wasting time.

Dear Lord, You are our main priority. Forgive us if we waste time on mindless things. Give us the strength to say 'no' to things consuming our time and to rather focus on our relationship with You. Amen