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