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
things, 'straws' and you can probably name a couple that I am not
even thinking about now, but my main aim in writing this is for you
to start to think about it and notice it when it pops 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 more than
that he is going to be so pleased when you start blaming the Lord
for the crisis and for not supporting you through it. He simply
loves it when we fall away from God.
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, they will also
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?
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
'Better is he who is lightly
esteemed but works for his own support than he who assumes honor
for himself and lacks bread.' Proverbs 12:9
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 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