Hi how are you today? I am well and have had a great weekend of relaxing and going to church. I love going to church on Sunday. The first reason is I get to worship God corporately with everyone else and second I get to serve people. I love seeing how God moves through His people. What do you love about church?
Last week I was reading a magazine and the words am I immobilised really stood out to me. Immobilised in the Oxford dictionary means to prevent (something or someone) from moving or operating as normal.
This can happen to all of us as we watch television or Netflix, or scroll social media, or play games etc. It can leave us feeling immobilised. It leaves us saying in a minute I will get up and we never do. We are literally stuck.
The Bible puts it this way in Hebrews 12:1 in the NIV Bible states:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Watching television and playing games may not be a sin but it does fall into the category of hindering us. Hindering us from what? The answer is from praying, reading the Bible, contacting those we need to contact, running our household, spending time with our family etc.
Let’s look at an example in the Bible. For me, the story that shows this the most is the story of the talents. Jesus told this parable in Matthew 25: 14 to 30. In essence, the story is about a wealthy man who has servants. The man goes away on a trip and leaves his servants with a different number of talents each to look after whilst he went away.
It is interesting that the wealthy man didn’t tell his servants what the talents were for or even what to do with them. That can be the same as the giftings we have on our lives. God gives them to us but often isn’t specific about what we need to do with them.
The wealthy man comes back and calls his servants in so they can tell him what they did with the talents whilst he was away.
The first came in and advised that with the five talents he was given, he doubled them. The man told him he was a good and faithful servant. Notice the servant didn’t tell the man how he invested the talents only that he had.
The next one came in and even though he was given only two talents, the investment and the results were the same.
This means it doesn’t matter the amount or the level of our giftings; just use them.
The next servant came in and gave the master back the talent. He had not used it at all but hidden it. He had become immobilised with the reputation of his master and the fear that surrounded him. This had caused him to fail at what he had been given. Guess what the man said about him- you wicked and lazy servant.
When we allow ourselves to become immobilised, we become lazy and out of the will and purpose of God. This is not a good way to be.
I just want to stop here a moment and remind us that there is a difference between rest and being immobilised. Resting one day of the week is a commandment of God but being immobilised is a state of being.
This week let’s examine our lives and pinpoint those areas where we are immobilised. Let’s work on them. Set time limits for games etc and then get up and be about the Fathers business. We can do it. I am speaking to me too.
Have a great week and keep living the life God intended for you.
Bless you
Karen
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