Satan's distracting words often come from the most unexpected quarters.
Martha would call Mary away from sitting at the feet of the Master.
Sometimes, if we are not careful, our best friend may distract us.
Or it might be some very legitimate activity.
This day's bustle and hurly-burly would too often and too soon call us away from Jesus' feet.
These distractions must be immediately dismissed, or we shall know only the "barrenness of busyness."
The multiplying agencies and the extraneous activities of much of the current gospel "programming" may distract us if we are not wary and lead us into some meandering by-path that comes to a dead end.
Our genius is preserved by sticking at the task of worldwide evangelization that God has called us to by the tried and proven methods that God has blessed, thereby avoiding the slough of an effete denominationalism on the one hand and unproductive, fevered activity on the other.
In a world like ours, we need to master the art and keep at the business of dismissing distractions.
verse
'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'
— Luke 10:41-42
thought
So easily we fall victim to busyness. But with whose business are we busy? Is it distracting us from simply sitting at Christ's feet?
prayer
There are times when I try to sit at Your feet, Lord, when in fact You are directing me to ministry action. And there are times when I am ministry busy when I desparately need to just sit at Your feet.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Nehemiah, the good, rose up from his weeping to do something about a vision God had laid on his heart.
Under divine providence, he was soon transported from Shushan to his beloved city, Jerusalem, armed with authority and equipped with materials to rebuild the ruined city. .
. . The first device of the "enemy," upon hearing of the undertaking, was to heap ridicule on the whole plan.
Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem laughed Nehemiah and his helpers to scorn.
Undeterred, Nehemiah replied with firm assurance, "The God of heaven, he will prosper us."
And the work went on according to plan.
After all other means had failed to hinder the reconstruction, the conspirators tried to arrange for a conference with Nehemiah.
The man of God saw in this an evil purpose to do him mischief and divert him from his monumental work. His reply to the would-be mischief-makers is classic, and might well be adopted for the all-time stock reply to all such overtures: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" (Nehemiah 6:3).
The great task to which God had called Nehemiah was so important that every other consideration must be waived.
Would that we might have such an overpowering sense of being about our Father's business and be so impressed with the grandeur of our task that we would reject every suggestion of the evil one that would bid us take up some lesser pursuit.
Let us rout him with the words that date back to 445 B.C., and which cannot be improved upon: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down."
verse
So I sent messengers to them with this reply: 'I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?'
— Nehemiah 6:3
thought
When we are certain of the Lord's will, we may with faith confidence pursue it despite the obstacles and opposition. Being about His business is our business.
prayer
Lord, as I determine to do Your will as I know it, You confirm Your will and reveal it more clearly and fully. Your business is my business.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Failing in his frontal attacks upon the child of God, Satan often turns to more subtle means of achieving his evil purpose.
He resorts to devious methods in his attempt to divert the Christian from carrying out the task God has committed to him.
He often succeeds by involving the saint in some other lesser occupation and so distracting him.
Nehemiah, the good, rose up from his weeping to do something about a vision God had laid on his heart.
Under divine providence, he was soon transported from Shushan to his beloved city, Jerusalem, armed with authority and equipped with materials to rebuild the ruined city.
When Nehemiah's purpose and plans were made known to the men of Jerusalem, they raised the determined shout, Let us rise up and build.
verse
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
— Psalm 143:10
thought
It is not always to the vile and evil that Satan seeks to divert us. It may be to the good but not the best ? anything to keep us from concentrating on that to which God has called us.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for succumbing to Satanic diversion by concentrating on the minors rather than the majors, the lesser rather than the best. I want to invest the life You give in doing Your will.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The amount of loafing practiced by the average Christian in spiritual things would ruin a concert pianist if he allowed himself to do the same thing in the field of music.
The idle puttering around that we see in church circles would end the career of a big league pitcher in one week.
No scientist could solve his exacting problem if he took as little interest in it as the rank and file of Christians take in the art of being holy.
The nation whose soldiers were as soft and undisciplined as the soldiers of the churches would be conquered by the first enemy that attacked it.
Triumphs are not won by men in easy chairs.
Success is costly.
If we would progress spiritually, we must separate ourselves unto the things of God and concentrate upon them to the exclusion of a thousand things the worldly man considers important.
We must cultivate God in the solitudes and the silence; we must make the kingdom of God the sphere of our activity and labor in it like a farmer in his field, like a miner in the earth.
verse
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
— Jeremiah 29:13
thought
Do we seek Him with all our heart or is it merely an occasional glance? He is to be found in the solitude and silence as well as the emotionally charged moments.
prayer
Make me a heart-seeker after You, O God. To seek You throughout the day and recognize You when You are found.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Success is any field is costly, but the man who will pay the price can have it.
The concert pianist must become a slave to his instrument; four hours, five hours each day he must sit at the keyboard.
The scientist must live for his work.
The philosopher must devote himself to thought, the scholar to his books.
The price may seem excessively heavy, but there are some who consider the reward worthwhile.
The laws of success operate also in the higher field of the soul spiritual greatness has its price.
Eminence in the things of the Spirit demands a devotion to these things more complete than most of us are willing to give.
But the law cannot be escaped.
If we would be holy we know the way; the law of holy living is before us.
The prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles of the New and, more than all, the sublime teachings of Christ are there to tell us how to succeed.
verse
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
— Colossians 3:2
thought
Our minds are so much set on things earthly and so little on things above. To grow in Christ as God desires demands on our part priority time and devotion to things holy.
prayer
Lord, I don't want to just float along. I want to grow and I have so much growing to do.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/o.
God has also given us a wealth of opportunities.
An opportunity may be defined as a providential circumstance which permits us to turn our time, our money and our talents to account.
Of all gifts this is the most common, and it is the one which makes the other gifts of value to us and to mankind.
The wise Christian will watch for opportunities to do good, to speak the life-bringing word to sinners, to pray the rescuing prayer of intercession.
The foe of opportunity is preoccupation. Just when God sends along a chance to turn a great victory for mankind, some of us are too busy puttering around to notice it. Or we notice it when it is too late.
The old Greeks said that opportunity had a forelock but was close-shaven behind; if a man missed grabbing for her as she approached, he would reach for her in vain after she had passed. Possibly the worst effect of waste is the mental habit it creates.
To allow time or money or talents to go to waste is to do something harmful to ourselves.
It is to injure ourselves inside where it is most serious.
verse
Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
— Ephesians 5:15-16
thought
Wise living is making the most of opportunities. That means recognizing them for what they are and utilizing them without delay. How many opportunities have we already lost.
prayer
O Lord, may I be alert to opportunities You send and make the most of them while there is yet time.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
One thing taught large in the Holy Scriptures is that while God gives His gifts freely. He will require a strict accounting of them at the end of the road.
Each man is personally responsible for his store, be it large or small, and will be required to explain his use of it before the judgment seat of Christ. . . . Then there are talents. These are included in the total store granted us by our Heavenly Father.
Whether we have one talent or many, we must render up account finally, and the factor that will decide for us is not how many talents we had but what we did with them. The story of the man who hid his talent in the ground makes disquieting reading for the careless Christian who is failing to make use of his gifts. Some with modest gifts have made a brilliant record of spiritual achievement; others with far greater abilities have played through the summer of life like the grasshopper in the fable and have let their gifts lie unused while time idled by.
This, we repeat, is tragedy, and that it is common does not make it any the less tragic.
Money is another item. American Christians make so much of it and spend it so lavishly that they have unconsciously learned to take it as a matter for granted and have forgotten that they will be strictly judged for their use of it. The Lord still stands by the treasury and observes what is placed therein. This has been turned into a joke by humorists who are ready always to find something funny in every reference to money.
But it is safe to predict that there will be little laughter when the Lord with eyes like a flame of fire looks into our accounts and makes His just audit.
We might do well right now to do a little auditing ourselves while there is time to make amends for our failures.
verse
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. . . .
— Romans 12:7a
thought
We have differing gifts, natural talents, human resources ? all grace gifts from God. They vary in degree, intensity of quality. But what counts is their faithful use for God's glory.
prayer
Father, give me wisdom in the use of resources You have given and faithful exercise of them as unto You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
One thing taught large in the Holy Scriptures is that while God gives His gifts freely, He will require a strict accounting of them at the end of the road.
Each man is personally responsible for his store, be it large or small, and will be required to explain his use of it before the judgment seat of Christ. . . .
First, there is time. None of us has much of it. The crow that flaps across the meadow will probably live longer than the oldest one of us. The tree that shades the sleepy cow in the pasture may have looked down on our grandfather when he was a boy, and it may remain to watch the passing of our children's children. And that we have so small a store of time constitutes a powerful reason for our making the most of what we have. Yet how many hours have we spent doing nothing or doing the wrong thing.
Our cynical waste of precious time could be a reason for our not having more of it given to us, who knows Jesus once said, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
Time wasted is lost beyond recall. While we sympathize with the emotional content of the old song, Backward, turn backward, O time, in your flight, it is yet hard to conceive of a more futile appeal.
Time does not run backward.
The old man does not become young, the young man becomes old.
So it has always been and so it will ever be.
The bird of time flies past us and is gone; the leaves of life keep falling one by one, the wine of life keeps oozing drop by drop.
We must work while it is called today.
verse
What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. . . .
— First Corinthians 7:29a
thought
Jesus had no more time in His sojourn on earth than most of us. He had less years than most of us have already lived. Knowing full well the brevity of His earthly life and the value of His time, He spent so much of it in discipling the Twelve.
prayer
Lord, I'm a waster of time. Forgive me. May I treat each day, each hour as a gfit from You to invest for You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
To each of us God has issued a certain store as it has pleased Him: to one more, to another less.
And since God owes us nothing, anything He gives us may be put down to His unearned generosity.
The man with a smaller store dare not complain against God for having given him less than his neighbor received.
God's gifts are not debts which He pays us, but gratuities bestowed out of pure mercy.
One thing taught large in the Holy Scriptures is that while God gives His gifts freely, He will require a strict accounting of them at the end of the road.
Each man is personally responsible for his store, be it large or small, and will be required to explain his use of it before the judgment seat of Christ.
The store is nothing new, just the old familiar list of human possessions: time, talents, earthly goods, opportunities.
Though they are as common as the grass beside the path, the waste of them constitutes one of lifes most appalling tragedies.
verse
'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.'
— Luke 19:17
thought
Deeply impressive among overseas Christians are those with such limited resources and yet who have invested them so wisely and faithfully. This, while we have wasted so much.
prayer
You have given me so much, Lord. O help me to use it all wisely.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/