My Monday blog post featured the Proverbs 31 woman and a few of her attributes. If you have not read that one yet, be sure to go back and check it out! She does not eat the bread of idleness was an attribute that I did not cover on Monday because I felt it deserved a separate post. I am currently struggling with this, but God has shown me that the devil uses idleness to distract me away from God and my role on this earth.
Idleness is such a subtle distraction that we do not notice it until it is too late. Being idle is dangerous because most of the time spent being idle; is filling us with ungodly things and shifting our focus away from God. Along with that, it also takes our time away from the individual purposes that he has designed for us to accomplish.
Idleness Can Lead to Sin
A great biblical example where idleness led to sinning is King David. In 2 Samuel 11, we see that at the time, when kings go to war, David instead stayed home. We read that he rose from his bed and saw Bathsheba bathing. Seeing her beauty, David lusted for her and then began his sinful act. If David had been off to war as he should have been, he would not have been available for this temptation.
When we are not productive, we can be prone to temptation. Ones like overeating because we are bored, picking up our phones to gossip, or giving into anxiety and worry. When we are productive, whether working on a project or spending time with God, we are less likely to give in to temptation.
Idleness Can Distract us from Our Purpose
Idleness can present itself in the form of procrastination. When we have a goal that God has told us to do, we will probably find ourselves with a lack of desire to accomplish it. We may rather watch television, read a book, take a nap, or scroll on social media instead of working on our project. The devil does not want us used for the Kingdom. He will do what it takes to keep you from accomplishing what God has placed in your heart.
We have all been placed on this earth to serve a purpose. We have goals to accomplish for the Lord and every hour we spend wasting time is one less hour we could be drawing closer to that goal.
Jesus had three years of ministry while he was on this earth. He was constantly preaching, teaching, and healing. Jesus knew his purpose on this earth and his time frame to accomplish it. He had a lot to do in a short amount of time; therefore, he was singlehandedly focused on his goal.
We do not have the benefit of knowing how much time we have on this earth. But we were all given a purpose. You may not know the specifics yet. But for those who do, let us not waste time being distracted by idleness. Rest when you need to, even Jesus rested, but do not let yourself get caught up in the idle and mindless things of today. I do not want to leave this earth knowing I wasted so much time and did not complete my goal here.
The truth is someone’s salvation, encouragement, or miracle could be relying on you fulfilling your purpose. The devil knows this (to an extent he is not omnipotent), and he wants you to fail. But God needs your assignment accomplished, and so does the world.
Social Media
The devil uses distractions like social media to drain our time. We start by getting on Instagram for just a few minutes, and suddenly two hours later, we have not done a single thing of use. Scrolling Instagram or Facebook, although not necessarily bad, can become a stumbling block by shifting our focus to what we do not have.
We all know social media shows us the best in people’s lives. We can long for something we do not have, such as spouses and children, and therefore enter a mindset of covetousness and jealousy.
Instead of being thankful to God for what we do have, we begin to obsess over what we do not have. Covetousness can be a subconscious thing that we do not realize we are doing. We may, however, start to notice that we are becoming less content with our lives and find ourselves thinking more and more about our desires. When we first realize this, it is time to catch the distraction and re-focus ourselves. Instead of scrolling social media pick up your bible and fellowship with God.
Television and Movies
Of course, not all shows or movies will contain impure content, but most of it does, even if small. We are subconsciously filling ourselves with things contrary to the word of God: such as lying, sexual immorality, unpure talk, murder, violence, and other sins.
Watching television may seem like an innocent way to wind down and part of the culture we live in; however, Jesus tells us in Matthew that the eye is the lamp of the body. Jesus states if your eye is healthy, then your whole body will be; however, if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.
Filling our eyes with crud will affect other aspects of our lives. Sin may start to seem less like sin and more like just a cultural thing to us. Sin may be something we start to allow to enter our thoughts because we have let it into our eyes. Instead of mindlessly watching an entertaining show, what if we turned on a sermon and used our time to learn more about our God?
In Conclusion
We must learn to carefully protect our time because the devil uses idleness to distract us. The woman in Proverbs constantly took care of her family, household, and the poor. Her role was that of wife, mother, entrepreneur, and neighbor. She did not take any of her tasks lightly and gave them her all (Proverbs 31:17). She even woke early to get everything accomplished (Proverbs 31:15). Let us make sure today that we are on guard against the distraction of idleness. Instead, let us give our all to our relationships with God, our households, friendships, and the specific projects he gave us.
Referenced Verses: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+31%3A10-31&version=NIV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+11&version=NIV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A22-23&version=NIV
Brava S Reitumetse says
I like how you put that idleness can come in the form of distraction from purpose. We may be doing tasks or things, but if they are not feeding into our purpose, we are idle in our calling and purpose. What counts is what we are doing for God with the time and gifting He’s given us, in accordance with His will for our lives.
This was a great post to read.
carrie says
I’m glad you enjoyed it and God used it to speak to you!
Alison says
Such a wonderful reminder.
carrie says
Glad it was helpful!