StewardLife Lesson 17
 LIF,E |
Christians who live a steward's life know how to manage even the pauses, the disappointments, the re-directions (2 Thessalonians 3:5, Proverbs 20:24).
STORY:
The recent return to standard time from Daylight Savings Time gave you that hour back that you lost in the spring. How wonderful…an extra hour added back to your life.
If only it were that simple to add an hour when the day is too short for the work. If you could choose to add time where you needed it, what a power you would have!
Imagine a person who is dying adding an hour to life…or a vital airplane connection made because an hour could be added to the clock…or a farmer adding just one more hour of daylight to assure a complete harvest.
God gave you that power. When Christ rose from the dead, He conquered death, which can end all your hours. Since you are assured of eternal life, you don’t have to spend time working out your salvation. Your life is not the spiritual rat-race existence of those who do not know Christ. Salvation has already been accomplished for you.
With eternal life guaranteed, the hours of each day take on new significance. You no longer need to jealously guard them. You can freely spend time now for the Lord and for others, since He promises you so much more in the future.
STORY:
Timmy was only 8 years old, but he came home from Sunday School one week insisting that everyone give 10% of their time to God. I really didn't think Timmy knew what 10% meant, so I asked him, “How are we going to do this?” His answer was profound. “Here, I'll show you how. The teacher gave us each 10 M&Ms (TM) and told us to put one into a special bowl. This was giving back 10%.” With that he got the old timer from the kitchen and set it for 10 minutes. “When this rings,” he said, “we will all stop and give a minute back to God.” Needless to say, the timer rang many times that night, but we all did learn from Timmy how to spend time for the Lord!.
INSIGHT OUT:
In a recent “Corporate Curmudgeon” column, Dale Dauten focused on interruptions. He pointed out that the average U.S. worker handles 204 incoming and outgoing messages a day due to phone calls, e-mail, voice mail, postal mail and circulated memos. “My theory,” he says, “is that we have reached the point where work IS interruption.”
In a life so filled with competition for your attention, how does God even have a chance to break through—to speak to you at all—whether it is through His Word or through His world?
If you can be so receptive to the interruptions in your day, you can also take time to look with your spiritual eyes to see how God is at work everywhere. The more you train yourself to take that pause to see God at work—to live the StewardLife-- the less often your LIF,E will have that forced pause.
EXERCISE:
You will surely come upon a stop sign today as a driver or a passenger. Watch how other drivers react to a stop sign. Some drivers will do what police call on tickets a “rolling stop.” They will just slow down but never come to a complete stop.
God at creation gave us a weekly stop sign. It was called the “Sabbath.” Sabbath in Hebrew means “stop day.” It wasn't to be a day that you rolled through, but a day when you could, by God's command, come to a complete stop.
We have lost the concept of sabbath rest. By rolling on through every day we increase levels of stress. Our senses become so overloaded the world becomes a blur of constant motion.
Let each stop sign you see today remind you to seek God's help to provide you periodically with some time—maybe even a whole day—when you come to a complete stop. Rest is a blessing of God. Take it!
