List Pruning
Theme of the Week: Whose Time Spent Whose Way?
Lee Warren
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well ( 1 Peter 4:10 ). Bonus Reading: 1 Peter 4:10-11
First on my list was teaching Sunday school. I realized that teaching isn't my spiritual gift. I was only teaching so that church members wouldn't look down on me. I should let it go.
The second activity was writing. Just after my injury I received an offer to write a column for Christian singles. I strongly desire to encourage people and glorify God through writing. I decided to devote more time to becoming a better writer.
Third was producing a Christian newsletter. I was publishing it because people expected me to and because I enjoyed the praise I received. It was time to stop.
The fourth item was serving on a church singles' leadership committee. My motivation, I realized, was fear of letting my church down. I asked to be released.
The final item was my grandmother. Three years before I ruptured my Achilles tendon, I'd moved into a basement apartment in her house. She'd been living alone and was beginning to need help around the house. As I read her name on my list, I was confident that God intended for me to stay with her.
The activities I discontinued made room in my schedule to do the things I know God wants me to do—in His strength, to bring Him glory.
—Lee Warren in Decision
My Response: What and whose needs do my discretionary activities meet?
Thought to Apply: It is possible to be so active in the service of Christ as to forget to love Him.—P. T. FORSYTH
Adapted from Decision (2/00) by permission.
Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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