It’s so easy to leave for tomorrow what can be done
today. I should know, until recently I
was the self proclaimed Queen of Procrastination. If the task at hand was a bit too tedious,
boring, would take too long, not at all interesting, I’d put it off. I started this bad habit when I was a
kid. Just about every report, project, paper,
and or assignment that was assigned I would wait until the absolute last minute
to get it done. Even though my teachers
were really good about giving ample time to study for an exam I’d still wait
until the night before to study.
As an adult I have had a HARD TIME changing this bad habit
and replacing it with the good habit of getting things done early. The times that I have been able to do things
early instead of at the last minute I was not stressed, not frazzled, not
worried about messing up.
I knew that by stepping up for God in ministry there would
be absolutely no room for procrastination.
I had to face this problem head on and change my attitude. My attitude always was that I had time to get
things done but the reality was that the time I had was to get the task done
over a period of time and not all at once.
With ministry there’s a lot of work involved. It’s all great things, that bring glory to
God but its work and more importantly its work that needs to get done on
time. Through lots of prayer the Lord
revealed to me that my problem with procrastination was not the inability of
getting things done early or the desire to be irresponsible. The root of my procrastination problem was
fear. Fear of what? Fear of not being able to get things done
well. Fear of being outdone by someone
else and feeling inadequate. Fear of
rejection. Fear of the unknown. I’ve shared with you how I tend to have high
expectations. The core reason for those
high expectations is the need to please.
If I fail at pleasing whoever then I fall short of my expectation and if
I fall short of my expectation then I failed.
In Proverbs 29:25 it says, “Fear of man will prove to be a
snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.” The fear I had of not being able to be
pleasing to people was a trap. It kept
me from doing my best. It kept me from
doing what I had to do at the time that God wanted me to do it. In Joshua 1:9 the Lord told Joshua “Have I
not commanded you? Be strong and
courageous. Do not be terrified; do not
be discouraged for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua had a lot to be afraid of. Moses was a great leader and now that Moses
had passed away he was given the job to lead God’s people into the Promised Land. All it took for him to not be afraid were
these words of encouragement that the Lord gave him. He stood up for God and did what he had to do
to accomplish what he was purposed for.
I know that God has purposed me for ministry and like Joshua
these words of encouragement did the trick to get me to remember that God is
the one who gives me strength and courage to do things. It is with His perfect love that I can “do everything
through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13 ) Therefore no matter if what I do
pleases everyone or not I need and will do it on time with lots of love. In 1 John 4:18
it says that “There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with
punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
God bless you and thanks for reading my blog!
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