Using Waiting time to build your Dreams

For many people, waiting is a mere waste of time. However, for those bent on fulfilling their dreams, waiting time can be a time of constructively building the thoughts that will enhance their chances of success and levels of motivation.

I'm not claiming that by merely thinking the right thoughts, you would guarantee your success in the pursuit of your dreams, but developing a disciplined mind that learns to systematically build the mental skills you need, is definitely one of the ways to chase away one of the "polar bears' of failure".

Ceasing the Day, Any Day!

Gen 39:21 But the LORD was with Joseph and blessed him, so that the jailer was pleased with him.

Gen 39:22 He put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and made him responsible for everything that was done in the prison.

Gen 39:23 The jailer did not have to look after anything for which Joseph was responsible, because the LORD was with Joseph and made him succeed in everything he did.

Now here is a true example of ceasing the day. Joseph had all the reason in the world to give up being good at this point. He was stuck in jail with no vision of purpose. To think that his time here was precious, would seem ridiculous. And yet we see that Joseph continued to use every moment to his advantage, by living to the best of his abilities. While other prisoners were probably complaining, allowing their thoughts to waste hours in worthless circular thinking, Joseph used his time to look for opportunities to impress the jailer.

God blessed him and he soon was in charge of the whole prison.

Don’t wait for your circumstances to change, before you start grabbing the opportunities! Use every moment you have, find an opportunity, even if it seems insignificantly small, and work it. Put every moment you have into developing that opportunity, and two, more important, things will happen:

1. You will develop not only the opportunity, but, more importantly, yourself.
   
   
2. You will, most likely somewhere along the line impress someone that God will use to create a bigger opportunity for you. And then you just repeat the process.
   

Expectation Deferred

Gen 40:13 In three days the king will release you, pardon you, and restore you to your position. You will give him his cup as you did before when you were his wine steward.

Gen 40:14 But please remember me when everything is going well for you, and please be kind enough to mention me to the king and help me get out of this prison.

Gen 40:15 After all, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here in Egypt I didn't do anything to deserve being put in prison."

Gen 40:23 But the wine steward never gave Joseph another thought---he forgot all about him.

Joseph had all the reason to expect that release was right there. He said good-bye to his friend the wine-steward, three days later. Then he waited, maybe even telling people that his time has come. He’d be out of there within a day or two. But the days passed, and then the weeks. How long did Joseph keep his hope up? Maybe a week? Then he must have started realizing, that this was not going to happen.

“Maybe,” he would start telling himself, “he is just waiting for the right moment, to speak to the King.”

But eventually, Joseph must have realized that he was to continue his life in prison. In his mind’s eye, he could see the wine steward living out his full calling and purpose.

Another two years!

And how long did he have to wait, again?

Gen 41:1 After two years had passed, the king of Egypt dreamed that he was standing by the Nile River,

Two years! That is a long time, especially for a young man. Especially to be stuck in a prison for having done absolutely nothing wrong! Especially when there had been a time when you had almost smelt the fresh air of freedom. But it took two years before God supernaturally intervened, sending the king of Egypt this dream, and finally moving Joseph into the place where he needed to be.

Where are you today? Has your expectation been deferred? Don’t give up. Don’t stop dreaming. Above all, don’t stop using every moment, to form and shape your character, to become the man that you will need to be, the day that the king of Egypt, whoever he might be in your life, reaches the point where God touches him, and he suddenly realized that he needs you.

Joseph made sure that he stayed close to God – ready at any moment

And what makes me think that Joseph used his time well, during these two years? I see it in this bit of history:

Gen 41:14 The king sent for Joseph, and he was immediately brought from the prison. After he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came into the king's presence.

Gen 41:15 The king said to him, "I have had a dream, and no one can explain it. I have been told that you can interpret dreams."

Gen 41:16 Joseph answered, "I cannot, Your Majesty, but God will give a favorable interpretation."

Joseph was given no time to pull his life together. He didn’t have time to suddenly make up for having allowed himself to drift away from God. He had no time to practice his gift a few days and really get close to God. No, he was IMMEDIATELY brought from the prison, given time to shave and change clothes and then he was before the king. In his answer, I see a man who is as close to God as he could ever be. I see a man who had no fear to stand before the most powerful man on earth, and answer with full faith and confidence.

I see a man who kept himself ready, for two years, ready at any moment, to step into his calling.

The parallel process of God's and Satan's plans

Gen 39:1 Now the Ishmaelites had taken Joseph to Egypt and sold him to
Potiphar, one of the king's officers, who was the captain of the palace
guard.
Gen 39:2 The LORD was with Joseph and made him successful. He lived in the
house of his Egyptian master,
Gen 39:3 who saw that the LORD was with Joseph and had made him successful
in everything he did.
Gen 39:4 Potiphar was pleased with him and made him his personal servant;
so he put him in charge of his house and everything he owned.
Gen 39:5 From then on, because of Joseph the LORD blessed the household of
the Egyptian and everything that he had in his house and in his fields.
Gen 39:6 Potiphar turned over everything he had to the care of Joseph and
did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Joseph was
well-built and good-looking,
Gen 39:7 and after a while his master's wife began to desire Joseph and
asked him to go to bed with her.

Two Paths Are Being Prepared

Two paths are being prepared for Joseph.

God is blessing Joseph, and Joseph is learning to manage a noble Egyptian
household. It could seem to Joseph as if God were busy setting the stage
for his promotion to step into his calling. He was busy building skills to
rule. Did that not reflect his dreams? Furthermore, he is put right in the
heart of where things are happening - he gets to serve the captain of the
palace guard.

At the same time, we see Potiphar's wife beginning to desire Joseph. Whilst
God is setting His stage, the devil is setting his own.

The apparent dead end was still God's Path

History plays out. Joseph resists the temptation, gets falsely accused, and
lands up in jail. Apparently, God's positioning had not paid off.

(Read the whole story here)

It turns out that the time for Joseph to be raised up, had not yet come. If
Joseph had succumbed to this sin, he would have possibly remained in the
house of the palace guard captain -- in the place that apparently was well
aligned with his destiny. By resisting the temptation, he ended up in jail.
Seemingly a step backwards. But, in jail was where he met the cupbearer who
ultimately became his link to where he really needed to go.

You Choose

It is impossible for us to know what the future holds, but we can know that
at any given moment, there are two paths before us. There is the path of
God, and there is the path of the father of lies, the path of empty
promises. The best way to keep in God's path, is to simply walk, step by
step, moment by moment, according to His Word.

There is no better way to spend your time.

Time: Knowing the pace you can move at

Gen 33:13 Jacob answered, "You know that the children are weak, and I must think of the sheep and livestock with their young. If they are driven hard for even one day, the whole herd will die.
Gen 33:14 Please go on ahead of me, and I will follow slowly, going as fast as I can with the livestock and the children until I catch up with you in Edom."

"Faster! Faster!" The demand to do more, seems to shout louder and louder the more we do, the faster we do it. We burn our resources faster than what we can generate more, and then we try to work harder to generate more resources faster.

Jacob showed some wisdom from which a lot of us can learn, when he said, " I will follow slowly, going as fast as I can."

Have you taken the time to learn how fast you can go? We need to learn to align our activities with our design, and pace ourselves so that we continually replenish our strength, lest we drive ourselves to death!

But he displayed even more wisdom than this rare self-knowledge: "... as fast as I can with the livestock and the children ." and ". the children are weak ."

As a parent and friend, take the time to learn to know the inner resources of your family. and those around you. As a leader, don't drive your "children and sheep and livestock" as hard as you can. Jacob knew that, "If they are driven hard for even one day, the whole herd will die." It sometimes takes just one day of your chasing after your material dreams, to kill the relationships in your home.

How often do people say: "But I'm doing it for my family?"

Are you really?

One of my students recently told this little story as part of her speech during an oral exam:

A young boy came up to his father, who was about to leave for work.

"Dad," the young boy said, "how much do you make per hour?"

"Two hundred dollars," the dad answered.

"Could you give me five dollars?" the boy asked.

"Five dollars? I gave you ten dollars yesterday, and two dollars the day
before. I've been giving you money almost every day, this month. What do
you do with all the money?" The dad asked with an irritated voice. He
looked at his watch. He needed to leave for an important meeting.

"Please dad."

Somewhat annoyed, the dad took out his wallet, and gave the boy the five
dollars, thinking that some time he must find out what his kid is doing with
the money. But not now. He was running late.

A few hours later, he walked out of the meeting.

"Any messages?" he asked his secretary.

"Here they are sir," she said. "arranged by priority."

He took the folder, and sat down at his desk. As he read the first message,
tears slowly started rolling down his cheeks.

"Your son called. He said he had been saving for three months, and he now
has Two Hundred Dollars. He wants to know if he can buy an hour of your undivided
time. He also said that he had five dollars for the taxi to your office and
back, so you won't need to waste any of the hour, travelling."

Time Brings About Change

Gen 32:9 Then Jacob prayed, "God of my grandfather Abraham and God of my
father Isaac, hear me! You told me, LORD, to go back to my land and to my
relatives, and you would make everything go well for me.
Gen 32:10 I am not worth all the kindness and faithfulness that you have
shown me, your servant. I crossed the Jordan with nothing but a walking
stick, and now I have come back with these two groups.

During the twenty years that Jacob was away, he changed from being just a
sojourner, to becoming a man of great wealth. He seems to have become
a lot more humble, and he seems to have realized that the value of the
relationships with his family is worth more than the blessings he "cheated"
from his brother Esau. He was now willing to bestow blessing, rather than
receive it, in order to regain that relationship:

Gen 32:16 He divided them into herds and put one of his servants in charge
of each herd. He said to them, "Go ahead of me, and leave a space between
each herd and the one behind it."
Gen 32:17 He ordered the first servant, "When my brother Esau meets you and
asks, 'Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these animals in
front of you?'
Gen 32:18 you must answer, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. He sends
them as a present to his master Esau. Jacob himself is right behind us.' "

Esau had also become a man of wealth who had enough of his own, to not have
needed to accept these gifts. He had totally forgiven Jacob during
these years of absence:

Gen 33:4 But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around him, and kissed
him. They were both crying.
Gen 33:5 When Esau looked around and saw the women and the children, he
asked, "Who are these people with you?" "These, sir, are the children whom
God has been good enough to give me," Jacob answered.
Gen 33:6 Then the concubines came up with their children and bowed down;
Gen 33:7 then Leah and her children came, and last of all Joseph and Rachel
came and bowed down.
Gen 33:8 Esau asked, "What about that other group I met? What did that
mean?" Jacob answered, "It was to gain your favor."
Gen 33:9 But Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; keep what you have."

Working for Nothing

Gen 29:14 Laban said, "Yes, indeed, you are my own flesh and blood." Jacob
stayed there a whole month.
Gen 29:15 Laban said to Jacob, "You shouldn't work for me for nothing just
because you are my relative. How much pay do you want?"

In today's world - or at least the world where I live as a consultant, time
is money. The idea of giving of your time to something, without getting
paid for it, is quite foreign. I don't mean to something as a volunteer
worker e.g. you help out with the local Animal Hospital or something. I
mean real work - doing what you do for a profession, for free.
Jacob spent his time working for Laban for no reward other than the
privilege to stay in his home, and to see what was around. He was basically
just working in order to know what his options were.

Sometimes we would be in a place where we will have to work without getting
paid for it, in order to get to know the environment in which we are
working.

Let the weeks, months and years speak against the moment

Gen 26:26 Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol
the commander of his army to see Isaac.
Gen 26:27 So Isaac asked, "Why have you now come to see me, when you were
so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country?"
Gen 26:28 They answered, "Now we know that the LORD is with you, and we
think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to
promise
Gen 26:29 that you will not harm us, just as we did not harm you. We were
kind to you and let you go peacefully. Now it is clear that the LORD has
blessed you."

It was as time had passed, that the same people that did not honour Isaac
before, began to give him honour, because they could see that he had been
continually blessed. What is interesting is that the honour he received was
not because of what he had done, but because God's blessing was on him.

Very often we want to put up a big fight to restore a relationship as
quickly as possible, or to clean our name, or to prove that we weren't as
wrong as everyone is making us out to have been. But sometimes it is
necessary to first wait. Just keep walking in integrity. Let God's
blessing rest on your life, and over time, those that are worthy of your
friendship will begin to see His hand on your life, and recognize that maybe
you weren't so wrong, after all.

Time: Urgency and Misplaced Urgency

Abraham’s Servant understood urgency

Gen 24:12 He prayed, " LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and keep your promise to my master.

I think this is the first place that I see in the Bible where anyone had a sense of urgency. His prayer was not just for eventual success, but success that day.

When having dinner that evening, we see that his sense of urgency continues:

Gen 24:33 When food was brought, the man said, "I will not eat until I have said what I have to say." Laban said, "Go on and speak."

And later:

Gen 24:55 But Rebecca's brother and her mother said, "Let her stay with us a week or ten days, and then she may go."

Gen 24:56 But he said, "Don't make us stay. The LORD has made my journey a success; let me go back to my master."

Esau’s Misplaced Urgency

Gen 25:32 Esau said, "All right! I am about to die; what good will my rights do me?"

Gen 25:33 Jacob answered, "First make a vow that you will give me your rights." Esau made the vow and gave his rights to Jacob.

Gen 25:34 Then Jacob gave him some bread and some of the soup. He ate and drank and then got up and left. That was all Esau cared about his rights as the first-born son.

I seriously doubt that Esau was “about to die.” He might have been really tired and hungry, and his physical desires gave him a sense of urgency.

I’m sure that if Esau showed a little bit of constraint, in less than one day’s time he would have been rested and fed – and still have had his birthright.

How do you judge urgency in your life?

In comparing these two pieces, we see a principle:

The way to determine what must be given urgent attention, should not be determined by the pressure of a moment, but by the weight of the importance of a task in view of God’s plan for our lives.

Abraham’s servant was on a quest that had an impact on world history. Finding the right wife for Isaac had a direct impact on the lineage of Jesus Christ. There was nothing that forced this urgency on him. He created this urgency within himself. Very often, if we don’t create within ourselves a sense of urgency for the really important things, they will just keep getting postponed and postponed – and our lives will never move forward. The really important things have a way of not imposing themselves on us. But their neglect has the effect of quietly filling our lives with a sense of meaninglessness.

Esau had come back from a hunting trip, famished – willing to do anything to fulfil his own immediate need for comfort. Often the things that shout the loudest at us, are not important enough to be allowed a prioritised position of urgency in our lives.

Often the urgent issues may seem as real and pressing as if your life depended on them. But take a moment to think about the long-term consequence of neglecting something important that you might be pushing aside, to deal with one more urgent issue, and make sure that you aren’t sacrificing your destiny for the sake of misplaced urgency.

Time: Enemy or Friend?

When I look at Abraham’s life, I see that the promise lingered – and as the promise lingered – so Abraham’s faith started weakening – so that he accepted his wife’s proposal to accept a concubine.

We read about Saul that ended up sacrificing to God, instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive, and that was one of the critical moments in his life that caused him to lose his throne.

We see that David, when faced with too much free time, allowed himself to get led away into temptation with Bathsheba.

Moses spent 40 days on the mountain, in intimate fellowship with God, having a revelation of God like probably no other human had ever had during his earthly sojourn.  However, during those same 40 days, Aaron and the rest of the Israelites lost their faith, and made an idol.

Each of us have been given a lifetime.  There are 70, maybe 80, sometimes as many as 110 years in our lifetime.  During this lifetime, there will be all sorts of things coming our way.  But whatever comes our way, we have a choice to make.  Are we going to use the time to get closer to God, or to allow ourselves to drift away from Him?

It has been my experience that, unless you make a conscious disciplined effort to build yourself up in your faith through regular reading of the Word, and prayer, time will pass you by, and you will find time becoming your enemy.  However, if you spend time, regularly, meditating on God’s Word, praying, listening for His voice, then time becomes a friend, drawing you every closer and closer to the Heart of God.

 

 

 

A time for everything

A time for everything

Gen 8:22 As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."

These times were instituted, and when we used to be farmers, they were obvious to notice. It was obvious what was the meaning of harvesting, and what was the meaning of planting.

When looking at the cycle on a specialised farm, there is a time of preparing the soil, followed by planting, then a period of waiting, and then the harvest. When the harvest has been gathered, there is a tremendous sense of the year’s work being done. Then there is a time of waiting, before the next season starts.

A natural rhythm

That cycle created a natural rhythm, with two periods of tremendous effort working day and night during the planting and the harvesting seasons, a period of daily tending the crops – between these two, and a period of rest – after the harvest, before the next planting seaon.

But today we tend to live lives that just continue, from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. The biggest impact of the seasons changing is that we change from running air-conditioners to running heaters, and we change the clothes we wear. It has no impact on our work.

If I am not mistaken, then generally, early spring was the time to begin to till and plant. Summer was the time of growth, tending, watering etc. Autumn came the harvest, and then Winter, nothing much happened.

I wonder …

I wonder what would happen if I started living my life in this kind of seasonal cycle.

Spring I will begin to start up some writing projects and work the long hard hours throughout the summer, when the evenings are warm and beautiful and in the day you really don’t want to do much other than be in an air-conditioned office. Then by the time autumn comes, I’d be ready for publishing – so I’ll send out the manuscripts, and then go into winter, relaxing, having little to worry about, enjoying the cold winter nights with my family and using the cool winter days to regain my strength, doing a lot of reading and research – letting the ground of my brain rest, as it were. By the time spring came around, I would be bubbling over with ideas and thoughts.

I wonder how that would be.

The importance of Timing, in Time

Joh 21:3 Simon Peter said to the others, "I am going fishing." "We will come with you," they told him. So they went out in a boat, but all that night they did not catch a thing.

Joh 21:4 As the sun was rising, Jesus stood at the water's edge, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Joh 21:5 Then he asked them, "Young men, haven't you caught anything?" "Not a thing," they answered.

Joh 21:6 He said to them, "Throw your net out on the right side of the boat, and you will catch some." So they threw the net out and could not pull it back in, because they had caught so many fish.

If they had known the future, they could have saved themselves a whole night of labour. But they didn't know. If they had received the Holy Spirit at that time, they could have possibly prayed about it, and God could have told them, that they need not work through the night. But would they believe that?

Sometimes God works independently of our own efforts

I have experienced a few times in my life, where I was facing a serious workload and some important deadlines, pushing myself to go with one or two hours of sleep per night for weeks on end, and then at some point, I feel God telling me to just rest. Quite a few times has it then happened, that the deadline suddenly was moved. The meeting I was preparing for, was postponed, or a project was cancelled or postponed.

Financially, I have also experienced that I would work and work and work, and business would just not seem to run the way I want it to run. My finances would be tight – in fact, going backwards – and the suddenly something would happen, and there would be a flow of money from a totally unexpected source. As if God is reminding me, that He ultimately remains the provider.

This is not a pattern, though

To return to this scripture: We must also note that this was not a pattern. This is recorded to have happened twice, in their entire lives as fishermen. So it has also been in my life. Diligence and hard work, as a key to success, seems to be a pattern, but God coming through at times, and sudden success overtaking us, almost totally independent of our own efforts, does sometimes happen.

Staying close to God can save you a lot of time

We have the advantage over these disciples today, that we have the Holy Spirit, and we can learn to listen for the Shepherd’s voice, at all times. If they could have asked Jesus the previous evening, they could have had a good night’s sleep, and just gone out for half an hour the next day, getting the same results as they got from a whole night’s toil. So I think the principle for us to take away from this, is to keep in step with God. Take time to pray and know what God is doing, and align ourselves with that, continually. That way, we could save ourselves many hours of needless toil.

Unless the Lord builds the house …

This ties in nicely with this scripture:

Psa 127:1 If the LORD does not build the house, the work of the builders is useless; if the LORD does not protect the city, it does no good for the sentries to stand guard.

Psa 127:2 It is useless to work so hard for a living, getting up early and going to bed late. For the LORD provides for those he loves, while they are asleep.

Worry or Grow?

On Wednesday, I commented on the text about serving two masters, in Matthew 6:24.

That piece is directly followed by this:

Mat 6:25 "This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn't life worth more than food? And isn't the body worth more than clothes?

Mat 6:26 Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds?

Mat 6:27 Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?

Mat 6:28 "And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves.

Mat 6:29 But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers.

Mat 6:30 It is God who clothes the wild grass---grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!

Mat 6:31 "So do not start worrying: 'Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?'

Mat 6:32 (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things.

Mat 6:33 Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.

Mat 6:34 So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.

The principle of not serving two masters, is directly followed by the principle of “do not worry.”

This is why …

The transition from the one principle to the next, is in the words “This is why I tell you …”

So the reason we are not to worry, is because you cannot serve two masters. Jesus knew that the master you fear the most, is the one you are going to serve. Therefore, if your life is filled with worry about your daily necessities, you will serve money.

The Link Back to the curse of Genesis

The alternative focus points of our thoughts, that Jesus gives us, are the examples of the seemingly effortless growth of nature: The grass and the lilies. He seems to be very directly addressing the curse of Genesis. Compare these two sections:

Gen 3:17 And he said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.

Gen 3:18 It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants.

Gen 3:19 You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil again."

Mat 6:28 "And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves.

Mat 6:29 But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers.

How will you spend your time?

Now once again, the question could arise – what does all of this have to do with time? Well, the way I see it, is that Jesus is trying to teach us that we have one of two ways to spend our time, and this is where the image of the lilies and the grass comes in. The first way, which is not the preferable way, and which leads us to serving money, is by worrying about our daily necessities. The second way, which is the way to serve God, is to discover His will for our lives, and to grow. The lilies and the grass look the way they look, because they naturally grow in the way that God had designed them to grow. They use that which God provides, to grow in the way they should. And that is enough.

When we seek God’s kingdom, firstly in our own life, then we will grow in the way that God wants us to grow – and soon we will be a display of His glory, just like the lilies and the grass. That is how we should be spending our time.

Servitude and Mastery

Mat 6:24 "You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

What is your relationship with money?

One of my students made this comment the other day:

“You can stand in one of two relationships with money: Either money serves you, or you serve money.”

Matthew Blewett once made a comment that, you should never work for money; money should work for you.

If this is a study of time, then why bring money into it? For three reasons:

- I have always found that money and time seems to be related. When my budget is in a mess, my schedule tends to also be in a mess.

- Most of us spend most of our time, working for money. We get paid every month, which is a time period, for working a certain amount of hours every day – once again, time.

- Effectively, we have sold a certain portion of our time to an employer. There is a contract that x-amount of my hours belongs to that employer every month, for a certain amount of pay. This is not quite the same, but also not totally different, to slavery. It’s just part-time slavery and the person doing the selling is the slave himself.

So should I not spend my time working at all, then?

Jesus said that I couldn’t serve God and money. The image He used was that of slavery. A slave belonged wholly to his master. I made a comment above, about the fact that working for an employer, is not very different from slavery. But we have to work. We have to sell some of our time and energy to someone, to earn the money to put bread on the table. Surely, Jesus was not proposing that we should just pray and go around preaching the gospel all day?

Choosing the right Master makes all the difference

I want to propose that the difference really lies not so much in what you do, as in the attitude of your heart. The “Master” that you serve, has nothing to do with who signs your pay-cheque. It has to do with who, or what, you are really doing it for. When I work another hour, because I really want the money, then I am serving that money. However, when I work another hour because I really believe that God wants me to get that work done, for His Glory, then I am working for God.

I am doing exactly the same thing, but for two different masters, and that makes all the difference.

This seems to be aligned with the concept of slavery and freedom. The effort in the Promised Land might have been the same. They could still have been carrying stones and bricks, mixing mortar, etc. but in the Promised Land, they were doing it to build their own cities, whereas in Egypt, they were doing it as slaves to build the cities of others.

A suitable companion to help

Gen 2:18  Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him."

When attacking this monster of time, I need to understand that the family is a team.  We need to understand how the others’ time is also under attack, and we need to be fighting together, to protect each others’ time from getting stolen.

 

The original curse included a curse of my time

There was a curse of our time

Gen 3:17 And he said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.

Gen 3:18 It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants.

Gen 3:19 You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed.

So has this curse been removed, or are we still living under this curse?

Are we still supposed to be fighting weeds and thorns, and do we still have to work hard all our lives to make it produce enough?

What does Jesus do with this curse?

This surely seems to have been the practical reality in my life, and in the lives of most people. But what is the scriptural truth here? What happened in the New Testament with this curse?

Mat 6:25 "This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn't life worth more than food? And isn't the body worth more than clothes?

Mat 6:26 Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds?

Mat 6:27 Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?

Mat 6:28 "And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves.

Mat 6:29 But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers.

Mat 6:30 It is God who clothes the wild grass---grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!

Mat 6:31 "So do not start worrying: 'Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?'

Mat 6:32 (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things.

Mat 6:33 Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.

Mat 6:34 So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.

It seems to me that Jesus calls us to no longer focus on getting the soil to produce something, but to focus on knowing God's will – seeking His Kingdom, and what He requires of me. God will then let the earth produce that which I need.

So what changes?

Does this mean that we don’t have to work any more?

I think not, because if we look at Jesus’ example, we see that he never stopped working. However, I think there is a change in priority that takes place. Survival is no longer the focus. God’s will becomes the focus, and survival is then guaranteed.

Systematic Progress in Creation

When we look at God’s process of creation, we see that God worked systematically during those six days.

· He didn’t try to do things all at the same time.

· He built things in an order that allowed him to build one thing upon another.

· He created one thing to the point where it was ready to support the next level of things He would create.

I also notice that He created things in such a way that it would sustain itself.

To read the creation story on-line, you can go here: The Creation Story