| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Be smart, be strategic” Our Bible verse for today: “Be very careful then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16 (NIV) Our thought for today: “Busy can be close to bad” It has often been said that if the devil can’t make you bad, he will make you busy, because busy can be close to bad. Busy isn’t the same as bad, but it can have a similar net effect for Satan’s purposes. Being bad can directly achieve an objective of Satan’s. Being busy at the wrong things, or with too many things, can limit our effectiveness for God. Either way, Satan wins. In Ephesians 5:15-16 Paul urges us to “Be very careful then, how you live …”. He’s telling us to be smart and strategic. He’s telling us to think carefully about what we will do, why we will do it, how we will do it, and what the likely outcome will be. “… not as unwise but as wise …” He’s referring to godly wisdom. He’s speaking there about being wise in the ways of God and structuring our lives accordingly. “… making the most of every opportunity …” Again, smart and strategic. This involves seeing an opportunity to in some way advance God’s agenda in the situation you are in at that moment, and then making the most of that opportunity. “… because the days are evil.” Uh huh, don’t get me started. We’ve been over this. This is an Alice in Wonderland world we’re living in – up is down, black is white, good is bad, bad is good, and some people don’t which bathroom to use. The point is that Satan doesn’t necessarily need to get us to be bad in order to advance his purposes. It is possible to fill our lives with lots of good things – but too many good things. When that happens, we could find ourselves doing lots of things poorly rather than a few things well. That’s not smart and it’s not strategic. We have to make good choices. We have to learn to say “no”. Sometimes even to good things. When Paul wrote that we are to be very careful how we live, he wasn’t just talking about avoiding things that are obviously bad. His lesson can also be applied to too many good things as well. Being too busy isn’t necessarily the same thing as being bad, but in some ways it can come close. If we aren’t careful, busy can be close to bad. God bless, Pastor Jim |
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