| Today's Bible Verse |
| "He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster."
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Proverbs 18:9 King James Version (KJV)
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| Today's Bible Study |
Several years ago, I worked with a young woman named Kelly. She was one of the nicest, most genuinely helpful people I have ever known. She had a smile that brightened the room, and she was
praised for her efficiency.
One day as I chatted with Kelly, I dropped the pen I held, and it rolled under her desk. I stooped down to retrieve it and saw that under her desk
Kelly had posted a note where only she was likely to see it. The note read: Do it now.
Those words went a long way toward explaining why Kelly was so nice, helpful and
efficient. She took her own advice and performed tasks immediately, as soon as they were given to her.
We create extra work for ourselves when we procrastinate. Dinner dishes
are never easier to clean the next morning. Balancing a checkbook two weeks after your statement arrives is a nightmare.
Some of us have adopted a “snooze button” approach to
life. We receive a signal that it is time to do a thing, and we mentally press snooze. Then we wonder why we are always stressed and hurried. Someone has said, “I do all my work at the
same time every day—at the last minute.”
Ecclesiastes 9:10 gives us this reminder: Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” The Message Paraphrase renders it this way: Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it.
What was the thing that you intended to do yesterday? Do it now!
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| Today's Prayer |
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| Father, I confess my sin of procrastinating. I don’t do quickly the good thing I intend to do. Forgive me. Help me redeem the time, because the days are evil. Amen.
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| Yesterday's Bible
Verse |
| ". . . let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
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Hebrews 12:1 King James Version (KJV)
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| Yesterday's Bible
Study |
My mother attended high school in the late 1940s. When she enrolled in her typing class, she was told she would need to provide her own typewriter. She did not own one, and her
parents could not afford to buy one for her. She borrowed a typewriter from a storekeeper.
This was the day of big, black, heavy, and clunky typewriters. But the
machine my mother used was especially cumbersome to use because it was broken. The bell indicating that the end of the line was nearing didn’t work. Neither did the tabulator
key.
Mom’s efforts at becoming a fast typist were hampered by these broken elements. She persevered, though, and eventually ranked second in her class for speed.
All of us have used broken machines: lawnmowers that won’t start, cars that leave us stranded on the roadside, and those blasted hand-operated can openers that make only a
few random cuts around the rim of a can.
But machines are not the only things that break.
Each of us is broken. Satan has corrupted everything and everyone
on the earth. We count on our hearts to beat and pump blood through our bodies, but hearts give out. Bones break, Alzheimer’s disease takes our memories, and the strong bodies
we had in youth become weak and disfigured by arthritis.
Our efforts to do good go belly up. We succumb to “the sin which doth so easily beset us.” We are tempted
to give up, but that is not the answer. We must adapt, persevere, get good people on our side, and go with God. A great rescue is coming. Believe it.
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| Yesterday's Prayer |
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| Father, you created me to be whole, but I come before You today broken, flawed, and discouraged. Lift me up and keep me until the day when you make all things perfect. Through Jesus, I pray,
Amen.
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