Really enjoyed teaching this past weekend on The Problem with Procrastination. As I was preparing to teach, I was struck by how much the Bible has to say about this subject.
Procrastination is actually a passive form of rebellion, a sin of omission that erodes at the foundation of our lives and puts us at risk to the enemy's devices. It clouds and confuses God's direction for our lives and diminishes His power to do what He's asked us to do. The devil loves using it because it flies under the radar of most Christian's and is effective at deceiving and de-stabilizing their lives.
I believe it should outright alarm us if we're viewing any part of God's Word or the leadership of His Spirit as optional, something we'll get to when we feel like it or when things settle down. James 1:22 declares, but be doers of the Word (obey the message), and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves (into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth) - AMP
Procrastination actually has a pretty predictable pattern. When you delay in doing God's Word, your conscience begins to bother you and you are plagued by a sense of guilt. You then begin to justify and rationalize your behavior in order to control negative feelings. However, this only paves the way to procrastinate more and perpetuates the cycle, taking you deeper into deception and sabotaging whatever you want to accomplish.
Eventually, you'll forget what God asked you to do and be unable to make the connection between problems your experiencing and what's causing them - procrastination.
Putting off to tomorrow what you can do today always comes with a cost. Missed opportunities, stress, sense of guilt, loss of productivity, creation of crisis, inconveniences to others and the most detrimental, in my mind, procrastination is a barrier to realizing your full potential.
I love hearing about success stories, especially the "rags to riches" kind. W. Clement Stone is a perfect example, he was the co-auther of one of the best-selling motivational books of all time, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. At age 6 Stone sold newspapers on the streets of Chicago to help his widowed mother pay the rent. At age 13 he had his own newsstand and later went on to found a multi-billion dollar insurance empire.
During his life he generously shared his formula for achievement and success and it allowed no room for procrastination. His message was, if you want to be successful, don't wait for tomorrow. Just do it now.
He would tell people, When you wake up in the morning, start with the phrase, do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now. He would tell people to repeat those words 50 times in the morning and 50 times before bed.
No doubt, he understood the greatest obstacle to achieving anything remarkable was procrastination. He knew that a journey of a thousand miles always begins with the first mile!
