How much time each day do you spend amusing yourself with entertainment? So often, we can spend hours upon hours watching videos and TV shows, playing games, or engaging in other unending ways to consume our time. But, unfortunately, in this world of technological advancement, where it is easier to accomplish tasks, we have become so much lazier than ever before. Clearly, we can see much of it is a waste of time.
The attention span of this generation has become very small. Not willing to take 5 minutes to read an important message, but conversely, one will spend hours watching videos with no value. At first, you may think, “Big deal, what does it matter.” But it is a big deal. Are you spending your time wisely, or is it foolishness that drives you to fill your day with things just so you feel busy? Being busy does not equal spending time doing something of value.
You need to be wise about what you spend your day doing. One apparent reason is that if you waste your time and do not work, poverty will take over the lives of those who are lazy and do not work with their hands to make an income.
A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. Proverbs 10:4-5 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Proverbs 13:4
Besides the fact that if you are lazy, you will not produce what you could have if you diligently work hard, it is vital to think about the bigger picture. Even if you work hard at your job, become successful in business, and earn great wealth. What will you have to show for yourself when you die? Who will obtain all the wealth you have amassed? You may say, “It will pass on to my family.” But what have you done for yourself? You can’t take a single item with you into eternity.
It would help if you thought of more than the here and now. You may live for 70+ years but will spend eternity somewhere else after death. Where will you spend eternity, and what will you have to show for yourself? God has established a day when He will judge every person for every deed, thought, and motivation of their heart. He will reward those who did what was right and punish those who broke His Law. Just like a courtroom judge will punish a criminal and give them a sentence or release them because of their innocence, God will condemn those who do evil, sending them to Hell.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 2 Corinthians 5:10
But are you good or bad? Indeed, you must be good; at least, most people think this. But consider your ways. Do you lie, steal, hate, lust, gossip, boast, or cheat? Do you curse God’s name or murder? Are you proud and arrogant, thinking you are better than others, or are you sexually immoral in heart, mind, or action?
These are all things that you know in your heart to be wrong. God calls them sins. Did you know that God gave you a conscience that bears witness against you? The proof that you have a conscience can be seen by the fact that you become offended if someone breaks into your house and steals your stuff. More seriously, if someone sexually abuses and murders a family member, you will react to a greater degree.
This shows that your conscience is working and showing you what is right and wrong. Why would you think God would approve of your behavior when you do many of the same things that others do to you that offend your conscience? Understand this: God is perfect and holy. He will not let any sin go unpunished.
God said, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Ezekiel 18:20
God can not tolerate those who do wicked things, and every sin is wickedness and rebellion against His Law. Therefore, He calls all to turn from evil and obey His commandments. But there is a severe problem. We are unable to do that on our own. Try sometimes to avoid doing, saying, or thinking of anything wrong, and you will find it impossible. We all revert to our sinful nature and break His Laws without the Spirit of the Lord to change us.
But I have good news for you. God made a way that not only can you resist evil, but God can forgive you of all your sins. He has made a way that instead of wasting every moment on earth, you can build up treasures in Heaven. He sent His son Jesus to the world to be the perfect, sinless sacrifice to appease the holy wrath of God because of sin. Jesus is God and intentionally sacrificed Himself to pay for and forgive your sins.
Consequently, when Christ(Jesus) came into the world, He said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” Hebrews 10:5-7
In God’s eyes, you are a sinner, a criminal. But Jesus paid the debt you could not pay. He offers you the forgiveness of your sin debt. But you must believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior. You must turn away from your sinful lifestyle in repentance. Then, God will change your mind and soul to do what is right and hate what is evil. God promises that if you seek after Him with all your heart, believe in Jesus Christ, and obey His commands, He will make you into a new creation. You will then be able to obey Him and follow your conscience.
But it does not stop there. God loves you so much that if you follow Jesus and faithfully work to build His Kingdom for the rest of your life, He will reward you greatly in Heaven. He changes your eternal destination to Heaven instead of Hell and gives you daily opportunities to create eternal wealth. He will provide you with riches that will never end, and no one can take them away.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
The truth is that God desires all mankind to follow and obey Him. Either you will obey Him, and He will reward you, or you will disobey Him, and He will have to punish you. He also desires that you diligently work hard for Him and do good to everyone you contact. So Jesus told us, in the verses below, the culmination of the Law and teaching of God’s prophets.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
So go and do what is right. Obey the Laws of the Lord that He may delight in your goodness. Do good to your neighbor and treat everyone with kindness and respect so that you may be like your Father, who is in Heaven. Most importantly, repent of your sins and turn your cheerfulness into sorrow for all your sins against God. He seeks a humble and contrite heart that seeks His forgiveness.
Believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior so He may give you a new heart and mind and save your soul from Hell. If you do, God will pour out a blessing in your heart, mind, life, and eternity that you will never regret. He will give you joy, rest, and peace beyond understanding.
The Soul Sower 
Good word; timely.
LikeLiked by 1 person