Show Notes
Are you busy? Your response is likely to be “Are you kidding? Who isn’t busy?” I want to ask some questions to help us determine what God thinks about our busyness. The first question I asked was, “Are you busy for the right reasons?”
Here’s the next question to ask yourself:
Has busyness become my identity? Do I take pride in my busyness?
Some years ago, I recognized this was true of me. I found my self-worth, in part, in staying very busy, accomplishing lots of things, and having people notice. Often I would hear, “How do you do all you do?” I would take pride in knowing people noticed how busy I was. For the most part I was busy doing things in ministry, doing things for Jesus, but far too much of my motivation was to get the praise and admiration of others. That was who I was.
As God’s Spirit revealed this spirit of pride to me, I began to pray that God would deliver me from being addicted to busyness. I truly believe it can become an addiction when we are driven to keep going and stay busy because that’s who we are! We have built our worth on our accomplishments instead of on Christ.
One way you can tell if this is your problem is to notice how much you talk about how busy you are. Do you wear your busyness like a badge of honor, a point of pride? You may be doing good works, the good things God put you here to do, but if your busyness is all about you instead of pure service to the Lord, then you need to pray about this. Ask God to deliver you. Not from doing the good things he wants you to do, but from that sense of pride and identity based on your busyness.
I’ve noticed we are prone to play one-upmanship. You know what I mean. We say, “Hi, how you’re doing?” and the other person gives a litany of how busy they are. Then we reply with our own list, as though we’re trying to prove we’re busier than the other person. And on it goes. Subtly, without realizing it, we’ve taken on a spirit of pride in how busy we are.
I hope you’ll ask yourself this question: Has busyness become my identity? and be willing to let God change that attitude in you, if necessary.
More from Walking Worthy in the Workplace and Life
I remember a song we sang when I was young: “Why worry when you can pray?” Well, it’s a good question, isn’t it? Why do we worry when Jesus has clearly told us not to worry? Worrying is truly worthless!
Are you in need of a rescue today? When we think of an ideal father, we think of one who is protective and who would do anything to help you when you are in trouble. Well, our Heavenly Father is all that and more. I suggested that if you need help from God, for whatever reason, begin with embracing your worst fear and your deepest hurt. Get out of self-denial, and then:
I know the way we relate to our earthly fathers has a great influence on how we see God, our Heavenly Father. And you may not have had the kind of earthly father you wanted, needed, or deserved.