Living Every Day With Purpose
God is SO AWESOME and He never ceases to amaze me! Yesterday, I had several email messages to respond to, and spent a lot of time on the phone, including getting acquainted with two of our new ladies. So I worked on my SOF post in between doing that, and one of the email messages inspired the post I worked on throughout the day, because I had told someone that idle hands are the devil’s workshop, which I thought was in the Bible, but later discovered is NOT true. Or at least I couldn’t find it. Unfortunately, that’s the way the day continued going as I searched for the passages of scripture to back up what I felt the Lord had led me to write, which is unusual. But I did find a few verses to make the point that God disapproves of idleness and that He doesn’t want us to waste time, because He has a purpose for our lives now and every day, and He expects us to do whatever He puts in front of us to do each day no matter what else is going on in our lives. When I run into problems while working on my post, I usually check my spirit to see if that’s really what the Lord wants me to write about, but I wasn’t getting that message in my spirit yesterday, so I kept plugging away at it! My posts usually start with a title (even though I might change that a little somewhere in the middle or after completing it) and then I search for the passages of scripture to back it up, unless the Lord has already brought them to my mind, as He often does. I finally had all of the scripture I intended to use and had it all formatted, with a pretty good idea of how to express what I wanted to write, when I took another call last night. Then when I got off the phone and returned to the computer to complete the post, everything I had worked on all day was gone! I couldn’t believe it! I took that to mean that was NOT the right message after all and I just hadn’t picked up on it. So I started working on another messaged based on one of the conversations I had with one of the ladies during the day, but that wasn’t working either! So guess what I did? I gave up and went to bed!
So imagine my amazement when I listened to Joyce Meyer’s TV broadcast this morning and her message was about not being too busy (or distracted by our marital problems) to live our lives with purpose! And what a perfect passage of scripture she use, which is Ephesians 5:15-17 (AMP), because it says Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is. But the verse before that is especially important for everyone who feels lost, dead, or empty because their mate has walked out on them and said he or she does not love them anymore and doesn’t want anything to do with them, because he or she loves someone else and they just want to be happy…blah, blah, blah! Because Ephesians 5:14 (AMP) says Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light. Oh what an AWESOME promise that is, and so, so true! The Lord just wants us to awaken to Him and HIS direction for our lives so He can live in us and shine through us!
In her excellent message this morning, Joyce makes the point that God places the same call on all of our lives for each and every day of our lives, which we tend to overlook because we’re expecting and looking for something “big” and “unique” (which He probably does have planned for us), but He can’t move us into that bigger and better plan until we’re faithful in the “little” stuff or basics that He calls all of us to do. Just think about it. If God tells us to do something a certain way, and promises that when and if we do that, He will do something specific for us, and then if we don’t do things the way He told us to and He rewards our disobedience with the blessing He promised anyway, wouldn’t that make a mockery of His word? Wouldn’t that make Him a liar? Well, we know God is not a liar and He’s not going to be mocked! Galatians 6:7 makes that very clear, because it says Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. So if we want to reap the awesome blessings and promises of God we need to start paying a lot more attention to whether or not we’re sowing the seeds of obedience and doing things HIS way instead of ours! That means reading and studying the Bible so we know what His word teaches us about His ways and what He wants us to do, because just as Deuteronomy 32:47 tells us They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” And until we demonstrate to the Lord that He can trust us to be faithful and obedient concerning the “little things” He asks and expects us to do, we have no right or reason to expect Him to give us or call us to more, as He told us in Luke 19:17 (NASB), which says “And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’
The following verses are just a few to give us a better understanding of how God views being idle, including idle words and thoughts (notions), and help us understand why it is something to be avoided, because He expects us to “occupy” until He returns, and while HE works on the restoration of our marriages and families. He just wants us to DO our part, and TRUST Him to do HIS!
Proverbs 31:27
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Isaiah 58:12-14
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Colossians 2:18
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
1 Thessalonians 5:14
And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
2 Thessalonians 3:6
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.
2 Thessalonians 3:11
We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies.
1 Timothy 5:13
Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to.
Luke 19:13 (KJV)
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
And here’s Joyce’s awesome message, Where Are You Going In Such A Hurry?, which is filled with great advice for all of us, especially when we’re in a time of waiting while the Lord works on our behalf for the restoration of our marriages. So I hope we’ll all make a much greater effort to live EVERY day with purpose, and that purpose is to bring praise, honor and glory to the name and kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!