"You and I are in a war today. We may not be in Iraq or Afghanistan, but we are in a war that is just as real. It is the spiritual warfare that goes on every day in our lives between God and Satan. Much of this warfare gets back to how well we spend our time.
God has a purpose and plan for your life today. There is something He wants you to accomplish before you go to bed tonight. Your mission is to detect that plan and diligently apply yourself to accomplishing it. But if you accomplish God’s best today, you will do damage to Satan’s kingdom.
That is why he is not going to sit idly by. He is going to offer you many enticing and clever diversions to get you off track so he can win the battle. To be successful, you have to recognize those snares and avoid them.
Take a moment right now to anticipate where those snares will be and how you can avoid them so you’ll redeem the time.
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"Everyone needs a purpose. God created us with a need to live focused lives. We need something big enough to live for and, if need be, big enough to die for. Yet the majority of people simply drift through life without ever fully connecting with a great purpose.
One problem is that many people substitute a life filled with activity for a life filled with purpose. But comparing the two is like comparing lightning to a lightning bug. They have some similarities, but the power they are able to generate is vastly different.
An activity filled life is one that keeps us busy enough to keep us from really considering the deeper issues of heaven, hell, eternity, and our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Knowing God’s purpose for our lives on the other hand gives us the direction we need each day to stay busy doing what we should be doing to please the Lord.
Which one characterizes your life- activity or purpose? Remember, it takes purpose, not just activity, to redeem the time.
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"Is it possible to be both content and discontent at the same time? The answer is yes.
Contentment comes from realizing that God has provided everything I need for my current happiness. The Bible gives us several direct commandments to be content with such things as we have. That’s because God wants us to find our real enjoyment in Him, not just in the things He blesses us with. Until we do, we’re tempted to spend all our time accumulating more and more stuff. When John D. Rockefeller was asked how much money it took to make a man happy he answered, “Just a little bit more.” Ben Franklin noted, “Content makes poor men rich; Discontent makes rich men poor.”
But in another sense, we need a healthy discontent to be more like the Lord and to do more for Him. Reaching a point of contentment in your walk with God leads to spiritual stagnation and backsliding.
Remember, learning how to be both content and discontent will redeem the time.
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"I saw a report on the internet recently that claimed the US Department of Health Education and Welfare once spent $230,000 to study ways children fall off bicycles. They titled their report, ""Evaluation and Parameterization of Stability and Safety Performance Characteristics of Two and Three Wheeled Vehicular Toys for Riding.""
I can’t verify the truthfulness of that story, but it really wouldn’t surprise me if it were true because it is simply the nature of some people to make things sound a lot more complicated than they really are. Much of the humanistic psychology of our day is that way. It simply replaces Biblical or common sense names for various forms of sin and irresponsibility with code names understood only by the elite.
In Scripture, the Apostle Paul said he spoke with “great plainness of speech.” He was direct and to the point, calling various sins by their correct titles.
Let’s follow his example. Because doing what works, not what impresses the elite of our day, will redeem the time.
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