Think: In declaring war on a hurried life, we’ve looked at several strategies for getting free from an anxious overburdened life: admitting we live at an unhealthy pace, practicing the cultivation of joy in all circumstances, receiving Jesus’ offer of true restoration. But one of the key things we must do to make sure we break out of the cycle of hurry and worry is to adjust our values.
As Pastor Rusty put it, our thinking and what we value the most are quite often best reflected in how we spend our money and where we spend our time. Often times, we don’t realize when it comes to allocations of our money and time that we might be better serving our own needs and fulfilling God’s call on our lives if we could just say “no” or “not yet” to some good things to say “yes” to some great things instead.
For me, this really hits home as I look back over the past year or two. When my wife and I took the Financial Peace University classes and as a result got really focused on reducing some of our debts we had acquired and made a priority to make our weekly tithe offering, it seemed like our anxiety and stress levels really started to go down, down down (not to mention the balances we owed on outstanding credit cards that we cut up and stopped using). If we got lax and weak willed in following through on heeding God’s wisdom in how we chose to manage our financial goals, nothing drastic or instantaneous happened. But over time, we did see our stress levels start ratcheting back up to where they were before we started to apply God’s principles to how we were managing things. Something similar could be observed as well when I look at how when we kept to a better work/life balance or not and how we managed at home if we got too caught up in obsessing over changes that affected our respective careers.
How the game of Life plays out for each of us is most profoundly shaped by the values we carry with us as we sit down and pull up a chair and roll the dice and move our game piece around the board. So often we either set ourselves up for a foolish life that races along like a runaway train fast hurdling to nowhere or one of sustained blessing if we stay faithful to observing God’s principles and making consistently prudent decisions that enable real progress possible.
Do: Take a few minutes when you are not hurried and try to focus on your values in the areas of money and time. Ask yourself these questions and freely write for a few minutes on each of them (just what comes to mind, don’t agonize over it): How are you spending your money? How are you spending your time? Is there anything that God might want to see you doing differently with either your money or your time?
Pray: God, help me to see that your values, how you want me to spend my time and money are designed to serve me best if I remain faithful in applying them. Amen.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.