One of my friends once said that the most effective weapon of Satan is procrastination. Convincing us that we can do something tomorrow that needs to be done today is a great way of keeping us from being effective for the Kingdom of God right now. When I find myself procrastinating and putting the things of God off until tomorrow, I remind myself to read Isaiah 55:6-7:
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon”.
Earlier in the book of Isaiah, we see that God views people in one of two ways. A person is either righteous or wicked. In Isaiah’s time, the majority of people had fallen into the wicked category, full of unrighteous thoughts and actions. However, because God is who He is, He stays close and reminds them to depend on Him and turn back towards Him. He reminds them to humble themselves, focus on Him and seek forgiveness.
So why is it that Isreal does not heed the Lords warning and turn to Him while He can still be found? I know for me there is a pattern that develops if I let it. I imagine it was probably the same pattern that Isreal fell into. First, I fall away from spiritual disciplines and my focus turns toward the things of this world. I become self centered, anxious and judgmental (wicked in Gods eyes). I then get comfortable in this sinful pattern, much like a pig that gets comfortable in his squalor. Eventually, I realize that I am far away from the Lord but I put off seeking Him because I feel guilty. I justify that I can “get back to it tomorrow” and procrastinate refocusing on Him. Its similar to what happens when people stop working out. They don’t start again because its hard at first and requires discipline. But once they get back in shape, they are so grateful that they bit the bullet and got back to it.
While this pattern seems to be common among all of us, the scary part of Isaiah 55:6-7 is the phrase, “while He is near”. One should assume that there may be a time where God is not near. Those times happen when we push Him away and make a decision to go it alone. He is a God of love, as we talked about in previous articles. As a consequence of His perfect love, He will let us choose to be far from him, Romans 1:28:
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done”
Debased mind? Yikes! In 1 Peter 3:12, we see that God focuses his eyes on the righteous and listens to them. I don’t know about you, but that’s the crowd I want to be in. Conversely, the second half of 1Peter 3:12 says that God turns His face against those that do evil. Let me encourage you (and me) to not let the weapon of procrastination be used by Satan to keep us from focusing on God and seeking His kingdom. Stay focused on spiritual disciplines and practice righteousness. In return, God promises to stay close, listen to your prayers and make His face shine upon you. How cool is that?
