For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.
—Jeremiah 2:13
I believe one of the biggest ways people waste time is by doing what the Bible calls “dead works.” I like to define a dead work as a “work” that doesn’t work! That means that you are trying to make something happen, but no matter what you do, it simply does not work. When that happens, the reason is that the work is yours and not God’s. When you stop planning and striving, and come to the end of yourself, then God will begin to move. That doesn’t mean you have no responsibility; it simply means your work needs to be inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, not conceived in your natural mind and fueled by your natural strength.
There are many different kinds of dead works. For example, anything we do with a wrong motive is a dead work. Another type of dead work would be the efforts we make without asking God to get involved. Take another look at today’s Scripture and imagine how frustrated you would be if you spent all day digging a well, thinking you would get water, and at the end of the day, tired and worn out, your only result was a big hole.
Things we do outside of God’s timing or His will are also dead works. Learn to discern when you are working on something that is not working and refuse to do anything that is not in God’s will and timing.
Love Yourself Today: What do you need to stop doing so you can use your time more wisely?
