Things To Work Through, Not Rush Through

Things To Work Through, Not Rush Through

Pastor Vincent - 12 February 2022

Weekend Devotion: Things To Work Through, Not Rush Through

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We are still in the celebrative mood of the Chinese New Year. And I saw that many of us are still rushing through our visitation, catching up with friends and relatives that we haven’t seen for a long time. But I get a strange sense when people are just rushing through visitations, trying to catch up with friends and kin, when after that, there wasn’t too much contact made with them throughout the year. I guess people are just busy. And with such festive season, we tend to do things out of obligations.

 

And another prevalent practice with new year, it seems that people tend to set new goals and resolutions, and they aspire to reach those goals throughout the year. I mean I have no issue with such aspirations, but I like to give a gentle reminder that there are things in our lives that we need to work through, rather than just rush through.

 

Just last week as I was reading through <Eph 5>, and there were a couple of verses that I think would give us much wisdom in managing our lives. <v15-17> says: Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

 

Now, let’s be more deliberate in understanding what these few verses are revealing to us.

 

First, I saw that the Bible reminds us to be careful about the way we live. And we are told to live as wise people, and I suppose if we were to be wise, we cannot be careless or cavalier about how we live our lives. And I see that we cannot be wise, if we are just rushing through to fulfil the demands of our lives mindlessly.

 

And next, if we were to be wise, the other instruction that the Bible gives to us is to make the most of every opportunity. (The ESV version translate it as “to make the best use of our time”). So the way we need to work wisely is also knowing how to redeem our time and make use of every opportunity we have. Because we know as time slips by, opportunity slips by also. There could be critical decisions to be made, needful tasks to work on, or important relationships to be built. So if we carelessly let time slips by, the result of it is we have missed opportunities. And this is one of the main reasons why people live unproductive and ineffective lives.

 

And right here, the bible made a deliberate connection to the work of evil. It gives the reason why we must make the best use of our time. Why? Because the days are evil. So that tells us that when we are wasting time, wasting opportunities, we are actually giving ourselves to evil. We are actually succumbing to evil temptations. You see, when people are not doing serious work, wasting their lives, they give themselves to all sorts of evil thoughts or unhealthy hobbies. They indulge in dramas, they fiddle with their mobile phone for hours, they get addicted to gaming, so on. So we have to learn to give ourselves to serious and important work in our lives so as not to be tempted by evil or the wicked things of our days.

 

And lastly, the Bible concluded with telling us to understand what the Lord’s will is. And fools don’t care about the Lord’s will. They just do as they please, speak as they please, live as they please, and at the end of it, they see nothing becoming accomplished in their lives. So coming back, as I think about how we should approach the new year. I like us to think about what are some of the things that we should make time for, or put our focus on. Especially, there are essentially things that we need to work through instead of just rushing through.

 

Now I can think of three. First, I think we need to work through relationships. And when I say relationship, I supposed we know all relationships start from our relationship with God. We must spend time reading His word, draw close to him through worship and prayers. My brethren, do not neglect the building of your spirituality by just rushing through His word or church life. Even with church services, spend time with your brethren. Church is not just a 1-2 hours affair. Other than church meetings, spend substantial amount of time in church, building relationships with other brethren. And work through relationship with friends and relatives in sincere ways. Be there when they need help. Spend time to engage and understand them. Do not let your relationship with friends remain a “touch and go” affair. Relationships with others cannot be built by just “liking” their post on social media. Do not just superficially engage people. Personally, I agree we need to be selective with relationships. We need to have close social circles, but it’s also really working through those relationship by making time for it.

 

 Next, work through your main responsibility. If you are a parent of young children, you need to work through the way you nurture your child. Engage them in their growth, in their conduct or even in their learning if you could. Build their values in Christ strongly. If you are a student, be responsible with studies for that is one of your main responsibility. But don’t just study to pass exams. Study to acquire knowledge of every kind. And it’s wise to acquire knowledge when you’re young. If you are a worker, don’t be slip shot. Don’t just work with a mindset of salaried worker. Be creative and seek breakthroughs in the daily task God has given you at work. Do not just get by at work every day, lest you’ll be a miserable worker. Take pride in what you are doing and produce work of excellence in every aspect of your work, for the Lord says: Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God <1 Cor 10:31>.

 

Lastly, work through your character. It’s always important to ask what kind of a person am I before men. And I think we have to be especially mindful not to be a callous person. Some people have a callous disregard for the feelings of others, some live with callous selfishness who only care about themselves and not others around them. Some children are callous to their parents, disregarding them when they grew old. Some are callous towards people who seems unspectacular. I sense that an affluent fast paced society which we are living in is shaping our tendency to be more callous rather than sensitive. When we are so used to just rushing through our responsibilities, focusing only on delivering KPIs, we will eventually become more callous as a person. And we will slowly see that in the way we deal with people and our tasks on hand.

 

My dear brethren, remember we as believers, we are called to be kind and compassionate to one another <Eph 4:32>. Indeed, the busyness of life will strike, but we must pray against an apathetic and indifferent heart. My advice is work through the difficulties and challenges of life with the help of the Holy Spirit. Don’t just take shortcuts. I pray that with this new year, we will heed the advice of the scripture where we should be very careful about how we live—not as unwise but as wise.

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Pastor Vincent Choo
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Vincent serves as the President of The Blessed Run Church. He is also the Senior Pastor of The Life Church and Missions (Singapore) and is an ardent missionary to the Chinese World. He currently lives in Singapore with his wife, Qiufen, and has three kids, Mary, David, and Caleb.

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