Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 12
READINGS – Part 1
If we are involved in the marketplace, we are trained to believe that time is money. That’s why we talk about managing time, using it efficiently and profitably, and—as a result of our concern—dealing with time pressures.
Cram more in. Start earlier. Work later. Take work home. Dictate on the commuter train. Make phone calls in the car. Use a laptop computer in airports. Schedule breakfasts, lunches and dinners for profit. Performance, performance, performance—it’s the key to promotion; to compensation increase, to power.
If an ordinary car engine turns four thousand revolutions per minute, a racing motor can turn up to ten thousand. The marketplace mentality says, “Rev that engine up to ten thousand as soon as you get up in the morning, and keep it there until you collapse in the sack at night.”
Getting caught in that intense pace can be rewarding! It’s exciting when the adrenaline starts to flow and you get on a roll, when your motor starts racing faster and faster. But it leaves precious little time for quiet moments with God.
You don’t have to be in business to be overcommitted. Women with small children know what it means to do ten thousand RPMs all day long. Almost every minute of every minute of every day is consumed by those little creatures who pull on your pants legs, color on your walls, track mud on your carpet, throw food on your floor and then have the audacity to fuss in the middle of the night.
The pace of single, working parents is double or triple that of the rest of us. It is incomprehensible to me how they can meet the incessant demands of work all day and then go home to face the even more incessant demands of their children, with never any time out.
I see pastors, elders, church board members operating at the same relentless pace as everyone else. Never a dull moment; never a reflective moment either. Frightened, I ask myself, Where does the still, small voice of God fit into our hectic lives? When do we allow Him to lead and guide and correct and affirm? And if this seldom or never happens, how can we lead truly authentic Christian lives?
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Too Busy Not to Pray, Bill Hybels, InterVarsity, pages 98-99.
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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?
Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?
David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.
We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.
For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.
You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.
