Getting side-tracked is easy. It happens to me as well. Recently I had a wake-up call.
Rather than spending much-needed time in the Bible, I was spending far too much time reading the news. This is not unusual. I often use overlooked news stories as the basis for my Bible classes. I thought to myself “Why not add Biblically-relevant news to my website?” After e-mailing myself over twenty articles, I realized the time this was taking out of my already busy day.
After much time contemplating how to discuss current events within a larger web audience, I prayed to the Lord for guidance. After grabbing another cup of coffee and getting back to business I quickly forgot all about my prayer for His assistance. By the time I ended in the evening, not only was my day wasted but I couldn’t even write text in my post. (A problem of which many of you are undoubtedly familiar.) I went to bed frustrated by my wasted time.
As so often happens, I woke in the wee hours of the morning to some prayer time with the Father. He brought to mind something that he had told me months earlier. Yes, we are called to be watchful of the times and seasons and to warn others. But as the world gets darker we need to be careful that we are not spending more time in that darkness than we are in His Light. The world’s affairs will demand more and more of our attention. Rather than studying about how to live life as an over-comer, if we continue spending more time “studying the world” we will become depressed and eventually despondence could overtake us. It is happening to those who are not Believers. Are we not to be bearers of the Light for them to see and follow?
Feeling chastised, I remembered my earlier prayer asking for His leading. I knew that God makes straight the path if it is His will. We will not need to strive on our own effort.