Preparing for what God has next.

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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.            2 Timothy 2:15 I remember when I was a student at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, and there was a group of young men who were preparing to go into ministry. They had come in as ministerial students and they liked to talk about how they pictured themselves up on platforms and in pulpits, preaching and winning people to Christ. But so often when Sunday morning would roll around, these same guys who wanted great public ministries wouldn’t even get out of bed to go to church. And then they wondered later why God couldn’t use them. It’s because they weren’t prepared! You see, God wants to use you to do something great. But you have to make yourself available to Him if you want to be used! It seems like there’s a prevailing attitude among so many Christians today that God will excuse and compensate for their laziness. But today’s passage couldn’t be clearer… preparation is key! Are you currently preparing yourself for the next great way God wants to use you? Or are you content to simply sit and wait, hoping God will bless your non-efforts? Do your best to be prepared so when the time is right, God can look at you and say, “Now, let’s go!” CHRISTIANS SHOULD ALWAYS BE PREPARING FOR HOW GOD WILL USE THEM NEXT. SO AS YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE, GROW IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN HE’LL CALL!

How to Get Things Done

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Exodus 20:9–11

Adam Clarke, the English theologian of the early 1800s, wrote one of the most influential Bible commentaries ever produced. He was not a fast writer or reader, and he was very diligent. It took him forty years of laborious effort to complete his six-volume work, with the last book published in 1826 just six years before his death. In order to have time for his writing in addition to his ministerial duties, Clarke got up early each morning. The story goes that a young preacher visiting him inquired about his routine. “Do you pray about getting up so early?” he asked. “No,” Clarke replied. “I just get up.”
The best way to get things done is to simply begin working. Looking for the perfect time and circumstances to begin work usually ends with doing nothing at all. Solomon warned, “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap” (Ecclesiastes 11:4). The difference in the level of accomplishment reached is not usually a matter of extreme talent or resources, but rather a matter of dedication and effort. The more seriously we take our work, realizing that God created us for specific tasks and duties, the more devoted we will be. And the more effort we put forth, the more we will be able to get done both in the spiritual and physical realms.
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Work is important, and the more diligently we labor, the more we will accomplish for God.