Procrastination

Are you a procrastinator?  I hope not but then some people should  have the middle name of procrastination, don't you think?  Do you know someone like that?  I do and it drives me crazy.  I don't know why I am doing this study but there must be a reason, and I hope I am bright enough to realize what God is trying to tell me.  As a rule I am not a procrastinator, I always do the hard things that bug me first and get it over with. Then the rest of my duties are easy.  So I am wondering why I am doing this study, I have a feeling it has something to do with my spiritual life.  So let's get started.

Matthew 19:16-22  "Now behold, one came and said to Him, 'Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?  So He said to him, 'Why do you call Me good?  No one is good but One that is God.  But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.'  He said to Him, 'Which ones?' Jesus said, 'You shall not murder, your shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  The young man said to Him, 'All these things I have kept from my youth.  What do I still lack?  Jesus said to him, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, and follow Me.  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."

This is a sad story about a rich young man who had great possessions and when asked to sell what he had and give to the poor, it was too much and he turned away sorrowful because he couldn't part with his riches.

Do you have something that you are not willing to give up for Jesus?  I am asking myself the same question.  Right now I don't know what it is but I am sure that God will show me.  I don't have any riches but I do have habits that may need working on, I will just have to follow His leading.

Luke 9:59-62  "Then He said to another, 'Follow Me.  But he said, 'Lord let me first go and bury my father.' Jesus said, 'Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.'  And another also said, 'Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are my house.' But Jesus said to him, 'No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

I believe that God is telling us in these verses that His service comes first in our life and that everything else is secondary.  Doesn't it sound that way to you?  Maybe this is where I fail, I am really thinking about these verses, how about you?

Ecclesiastes 12:1  "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, 'I have no pleasure in them."

I should have read this verse years ago, but really I am sure I did but had forgotten it, our youth is a time to get started on our relationship with God.  There really isn't a lot of pleasure in old age, accept with our God.

Jeremiah 13:16  "Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, And while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death."

Our life does come to a close sometime and we want to make sure our relationship with our God is good and sound before it does.  I believe this study was a warning to me to be ready for we don't know when our time comes to leave our loved ones and sleep in the grave.  I am really trying to be ready for Jesus to take me when it is in His time.  I do not fear death like a lot of people, but I don't want to be a procrastinator either.  If I am ready, it will only be a few seconds to me when Jesus calls me from the grave at the resurrection of the saved.  That is a wonderful promise and such a beautiful meaningful way for our earthly life to end.  We have been promised a beautiful paradise made new on this old earth and I am looking forward to that, and being with my husband again, who is sleeping in the grave until Jesus comes to get him and we will go to be with Him forever.

Please don't procrastinate with your eternal life, it is not worth one minute of putting it off.  God wants us to be with Him forever, let's not disappoint Him.  Grandma Joan