Are you quick off the mark?
In this Article we will examine something that we all can often tend towards, it is called “Procrastination,” not that we intentionally intend that we will never get around to doing it, we just are not ready, not now, I am not in the mood, that’s for Tomorrow, and so the list often goes forwards with many pages of valid reasons as to why now is not an opportune moment, so what does the Bible offer us as contemplation?
James 1:22 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Romans 12:12 “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;” 2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” Luke 6:47-48 “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: he is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.”
Quote; “Beware of Procrastination: Parents, you should commence to train the minds of your children while they are young, to the end that they may be Christians. . . . Beware how you lull them to sleep over the pit of destruction, with the mistaken thought that they are not old enough to be accountable, not old enough to repent of their sins and profess Christ. Children of eight, ten, or twelve years are old enough to be addressed on the subject of personal religion. Do not teach your children with reference to some future period when they shall be old enough to repent and believe the truth. If properly instructed, very young children may have correct views of their state as sinners and of the way of salvation through Christ.
I was referred to the many precious promises on record for those who seek their Saviour early. Ecclesiastes 12:1: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” Proverbs 8:17: “I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.” The great Shepherd of Israel is still saying, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Teach your children that youth is the best time to seek the Lord.” {CG 491}
Quote; “Beware of procrastination: Do not put off the work of forsaking your sins and seeking purity of heart through Jesus. Here is where thousands upon thousands have erred to their eternal loss. I will not here dwell upon the shortness and uncertainty of life; but there is a terrible danger–a danger not sufficiently understood–in delaying to yield to the pleading voice of God’s Holy Spirit, in choosing to live in sin; for such this delay really is. Sin, however small it may be esteemed, can be indulged in only at the peril of infinite loss. What we do not overcome, will overcome us and work out our destruction.” {SC 32}
2 Samuel 22:29-31 “For thou [art] my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness. For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall. [As for] God, his way [is] perfect; the word of the LORD [is] tried: he [is] a buckler to all them that trust in him.” Habakkuk 2:2 “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make [it] plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” 1 Corinthians 9:23-27 “And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with [you]. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
Philippians 2:16 “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” Hebrews 12:1-2 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Psalm 95:8 “Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, [and] as [in] the day of temptation in the wilderness:” Hebrews 3:15 “While it is said, today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”
We are admonished to be “Workers in God’s Vineyard” and to press forwards, and this is not “By our own Works” but it is “By Faith” as we are only doing what God has requested for us to be doing, so this is plain ole “Obedience.” Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.” Let us all quit “Procrastination” and conform to “Obedience.”
