Listen to this devotion
How, Lord … can I stop procrastinating?
In the Word
If you wait for perfect conditions you will never get anything done (Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT).
Of the Word
Procrastination is a habit that allows us to avoid doing a task or facing a situation or just plain putting something off because we don’t want to deal with it. In the meantime, work goes unfinished and we waste valuable energy thinking about (or worrying over) what it is we still have to do. Martin Luther said, “How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.”
To break this habit, the question “Why do I procrastinate?” needs to be answered. Is it fear of failure? Laziness? A desire for perfection? Self-doubts? When we look at these answers we realize that none of them are God-pleasing reasons for avoiding what needs to be done.
God does answer this question in His Word: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men … (Colossians 3:23). We can face those put-off tasks by remembering that God is with us and “… nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).
Walking with my Lord
Lord, when I have things I must do, give me the determination not to put them off until later. Through Your Holy Spirit working within me, help me let go of the reasons I don’t get things done and instead do all things to Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Mustard Seed: How, Lord? Marcia Gomulka and Myrna Lou Meyer, authors. 9/32 ©2011 Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, 801 Seminary Place Ste. L010, St. Louis, MO 63105. www.lwml.org
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations were taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
