Making time!

Selling a house some three years earlier than we had expected to be doing so, is something of a nightmare for a "deadline-motivated" person like me! So many little jobs, with so much time in which to complete them - and, suddenly, that time is reduced to a couple of months! Not a happy chappy - but seeking to meet the new deadlines!

I also enjoy watching news programmes - even in French! A week or so ago, I was painting some gate-pillars so that prospective buyers would have a good "first impression". My wife called out to me that it was almost time for my news. However, instead of downing paintbrush, I told her that I would have to miss my programme, as I was much too busy to sit down and watch. 

It was as I worked on that I found myself thinking on what I had just done. I had given up something that I enjoy, in order to do what had to be done. That was a real challenge to me. I recalled some words of the Lord Jesus: "We must work the works of Him Who sent Me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work." (John 9:5). What the Lord is saying, basically, is that our work for God must take priority. Of course, this is not to say that we neglect our jobs, or our care for our families. However, it may be that we have to take a careful look at the time we spend in front of a screen - be it television or computer! - and compare that with the time we spend reading God's Word; it may be that we have to take stock of the difference between the time we spend in other leisure pursuits, and the time we spend in prayer; it may be that we have to consider how much of our "spare" cash is spent on personal luxuries, and how much is given to the extension of God's Kingdom, and to supporting those in the persecuted church!

It is a simple fact of life - and certainly of the life of the disciple of Jesus - that there are times when we must stop doing something we want to do, in order that we may do what Father God wants us to do! Now, of course, each individual's wants, and goals, are different, but that is what determines the discipline, and self-denial, that we need to accept. Indeed, as someone has pointed out, without a goal, discipline and self-denial are nothing other than punishment! However, if our goal is pleasing our heavenly Father, then any cost is seen as nothing in the light of the eternal reward that is promised to those who are, not necessarily "successful", bur "faithful"!

If I can give up my news programme in order to paint a wall, then I must take a hard look at myself, to check where my priorities lie in so many other areas of life. Will you join with me in doing just that?!