Page 71 - Personal Spiritual Life Syllabus w videos

Daily Initiative – Wasting Time – Using Time Wisely

Think about this verse:

Romans 14:12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

In context, this verse talks about a day we shall stand before the Lord and give an account of our works
to God. The preceding verses talked about passing judgment on others when you need to judge
yourself. Have you ever wondered what this accounting will involve?

1. It won’t be a judgment for our sin. Psalm 103:12 says that “as far as the east is from the west, so far
does he remove our transgressions from us.” The Bible says that when we were justified by God when
we by faith believed in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and applied it to our lives. At that moment
we were declared righteous before a holy God. And it is not our righteousness, but the righteousness of
Christ presented on our behalf of us to the just Judge. This is an amazing verse to ponder:

II Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.

2. God has a special plan and many responsibilities He wants us to accomplish on His behalf. He will
give us a limited time to accomplish this plan and He will empower us to accomplish it completely, if we
will be willing to comply with the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to
harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

3. We can get sidetracked by Satan and not accomplish our God-given duties. In the book of Hebrews,
the author in chapter 12 reminds us of the faithfulness of dozens of people in the Old Testament. Each,
by faith, obeyed God and ended up in this list of the heroes of faith. Here is how the group is
introduced:

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside
every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
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us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Notice that throughout our Christian journey, we are to keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ. But the
verse also tells us that a couple of things can sidetrack our journey: worldly weight and sin which clings
to us. In other words, the weight of this world and the sin we allow to remain unconfessed can take us
off the path and lead us to waste our time on a false journey.

Paul warned the church at Corinth to discipline their bodies by self-control. In other words, he was
telling them not to get sidetracked in their spiritual journey, lest they be disqualified, as a racer does
when he leaves the track.

I Corinthians 9: 24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?
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So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a

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