Temptation, former procrastinators, comes in many forms. There’s something for everybody. It even seems tailor-made – the chocolate, the pillow, the hug, the snide remark – that perfectly fits our “needs.”
We often refer in a light-hearted manner to being tempted. We laugh about it as if it were of no importance or we moan about it as if we’re destined to be its victim. Neither is true. It is serious; it is not our destiny.
Let me clarify. Temptation is “the pressure to give in to a desire for easy or immediate pleasure.” (Merrill Webster online) That comes with living. Easy or immediate pleasure is not always wrong. We need discernment. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, the Christian can discern and does not have to give in to ungodly pressure. The believer can choose better. For the next several weeks let’s look at tools we can use to help us choose true benefit instead of giving in to enticements that draw us away from God’s best.
It helps to grasp what Paul explained in Ephesians 4:17-24. He said that in our unsaved state we had hard hearts that caused ignorance. We had purposeless, useless minds lacking understanding. But we’ve been taught Jesus, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Those old characteristics in our former life made us subject to deceitful lusts, deceitful desires. Procrastination is a deceitful lust. It entices us to believe delay is beneficial – then it stings us. We want the relief of not dealing with an issue or not doing a job; then we pay for it.
In our former manner of life, we procrastinated to the detriment of ourselves and others. With selfish hearts we lacked understanding. But we’re being transformed! Part of our sanctifying process is becoming biblically diligent women. The Holy Spirit helps us do what needs doing when it needs doing. We have the joy of abiding more closely in Christ.
The Spirit is not lured by delay. That’s the old self. The Spirit helps us put on the new man and choose biblical diligence – work, play, or rest – as He directs. We’re renewed in the spirit of our minds to be Christlike.
When did you last feel the pressure to procrastinate?
Thank you for your perspective
🧡🙏🏻
Ever learning!