DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 2, 2019
“Best Practices”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the most important person in our life. You are the most valuable treasure. You are the One we call God and Lord and Master and Savior. Have mercy on us Lord and help us to live lives with You as most important. Amen.
Scripture: Ephesians 5:15-16
Be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of your time because the times are evil.
Devotion – “Best Practices”
If you do just a little research, you will find that there is actually a lot of data out there about how busy we have become; or think we have become. I spent about an hour the other day wading through this material and found some very interesting conclusions. Whether they were high-powered business people, doctors, psychologists or sociologists, they all seemed to concluded something I did not expect to hear. One of the articles I read published by the BBC news network summed up the real problem of the epidemic of busyness pretty well. They said, “You might assume the explanation [for how busy everyone is] would be straightforward: we feel so much busier these days because we’ve have so much more to do. But you’d be wrong.” According to all of the data and research that was collected, “The total time people are working – whether paid or otherwise – has not increased in Europe or North America in recent decades.” In fact, not only has the total amount of working hours not increased, but the research found that the amount of leisure time in Europe and the United States has actually increased upwards of 30% since the 1950’s.
So, do you feel like you have increased leisure time? My guess is probably not. I would guess that the chances are pretty high that you can relate to the epidemic of busyness. So then why when we actually have more leisure time than ever before, are we busier than ever? Well, if the data that I found is correct (and I tend to believe it is from my own experience)…the truth is, we are not busier than ever, we just feel that way. To quote the well established economic magazine “The Economist”
“The problem” with busyness in our modern lives, “is less about how much time people have and more about how they see it.” In other words, we are so busy not because we have less time, but because of how we have come to perceive being busy. As nearly every article and publication I read on this topic stated, being “crazy busy” has now become a status symbol. Jonathan Gershuny heads up The Center of Time Use Research at Oxford University, and this is how he puts it, “busyness has become the indicator of high status. “The best-off in our society are often very busy, and have to be,” says Gershuny. “You ask me, am I busy, and I tell you: ‘Yes, of course I’m busy – because I’m an important person!’”
To sum it all up, the reality of our busyness is that we are creating it ourselves unnecessarily. How are we doing this? By cramming all sorts of unnecessary things into the precious and increased leisure time that we have. Things that are not only unnecessary, but that keep us busy for the sake of being busy…and for the sake of being important. Of course, being constantly connected and “on demand” through cell phones, computers and wireless internet doesn’t help either.
As I read through all of these articles and research findings, Paul’s words from Ephesians 5 kept popping into my head. “Be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of your time because the times are evil.” Paul is right. We live in a sinful world filled with sinful people and the Devil is ever vigilant in trying to keep us distracted and preoccupied with everything else…preoccupied with being preoccupied even…anything but make more time and use more of our time for prayer, worship, God’s Word…or for cultivating stronger faith and discipleship in our children and families rather than signing them up for the next activity or sport. The Devil is the father of all lies and a deceiver, and I don’t think it’s a news flash that one of his most successful deceptions right now is that of busyness. The Devil will deceive us into thinking that everything is critical, that everything is important so we will focus on anything and everything except the health and well-being of our faith. For many Christians, faith in Christ has just become another checkbox, another to-do in the long list of busy to-dos. You know friends, if everything is important, then nothing is important. I’ll say it again. If everything is important, then nothing is important.
Jesus talked about the importance of finding the time to nurture our faith and relationship with Him. In the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13, Jesus likened faith to seeds that were being dispersed and sown by a farmer into the field. Jesus gives 3 different instances of how the seed of faith could be compromised and endangered. The second and third instance in that parable I think is very appropriate for this topic of busyness.
As Jesus Himself explains in Matthew 13, “The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” When busyness consumes the majority of our time and energy and effort, we become like rocky soil…unable to plant deep and firm roots of faith that will help us withstand, stay strong and find peace with God even in times of trouble. When busyness occupies the time and space that should be given to God, we are easily choked and made unfruitful.
Jesus ends the Parable of the Sower by saying, “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Friends, especially in the world we live in today, the good soil in which the seed of faith God has planted in our hearts can flourish and yield fruit, is the precious time and priority we give to hearing God’s Word, understanding it and living it within the fellowship of believers.
How we manage our time and our commitments, and what we make a priority in our life has very real consequences on our faith – and what is more important than your faith? Your very salvation? Think about how much energy and effort we put into safeguarding earthly treasure…all of which in the light of eternity are worthless. If we were to map out on paper how we spend our time…how much of that paper would be filled with things directly concerned with our faith and relationship with Jesus, and our family’s faith and relationship with Jesus. Don’t misunderstand me friends, it is absolutely by simple faith alone in Christ that you are saved and are assured eternity with Christ and God forever, but Christ did not endure the horrors of the cross to give us a boarding pass to heaven that we keep tucked in our pocket for later when Christ returns and this world ends. God gave all of Himself in Christ Jesus so that He could have an eternal relationship with you now, today.
Have a blessed week everyone, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
