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First Step Worksheet - PDF (CLICK HERE)Video Transcript - Hi, this is Dave Westbrook. Welcome to the first module in the “Total Preparedness” online series entitled “Create In Me”. This module is made up of seven short lessons starting with this one entitled: "The First Step in Spiritual Preparedness". Let’s pray: Dear heavenly Father, I ask that you would open our hearts and our minds to understand what we need to prepare for eternity. In Jesus name, Amen. For this lesson, we’re going to begin with a simple, spiritual preparedness test. You see here two poles – opposite ends of a spectrum. One the left side we have "Life Under Control", and on the right, the opposite – "Life Out of Control". In between, we have a scale from 1 to 10. I’d like you to determine where you are right now on the scale. I recognize it’s a bit subjective, so let me define each side of the scale with a bit more detail. Life Under Control: You’re getting plenty of rest, getting your devotional time in every day – that thoughtful hour. For the most part, you find your mind is in a restful state. You wouldn’t describe yourself as “stressed out”. You’re accomplishing the things you need to in an efficient and timely way. Life Out of Control: You’re mind is racing much of the time – feeling stressed out. You get to bed late and have to force yourself to get up early. You find yourself missing devotional time or rushing through it before you race off into the rest of your day. It seems you’re always behind – not quite getting the things done you need to. Perhaps you’re even feeling overwhelmed. So where did you put yourself on the scale? Someone might be thinking to themselves – “well, it’s really not possible to experience life under control – no such thing as a '1' in real life." If you’re thinking that, I want to challenge you. It is possible to live life on the left side of the scale – life under control. How can I be so sure? Because that’s how Jesus lived life, and He is our example. He came to show us how we can live, with God’s power. Remember the storm at sea (Mark 4:36-41) – the disciples in panic trying to save themselves from sinking, and then they remembered Jesus. But where was He? “…He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.” Mark 4:38 Have you ever been in a storm at sea or even on a lake? I have, and if you have, you know the next question is, “How can anybody sleep during a storm at sea?” There’s only one answer – his mind was at peace. That’s life under control. It can be done. That experience can be ours: “As Jesus rested by faith in the Father's care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour. If the disciples had trusted in Him, they would have been kept in peace. Their fear in the time of danger revealed their unbelief.” Desire of Ages, 336 That experience – the mind at peace, can be yours. If that’s not your experience, here are six simple steps that will help you get there. Step 1: Take Inventory – List your responsibilities. Some you’ve accepted, others you can’t do much about – but make sure you include devotional time and time for rest and exercise as well. This list should include everything that’s on your plate right now. If you’re really busy, you might be thinking that you don’t even have time to make this list, but if that’s the case – you must understand that you can’t afford not to – this is critical. It’s the only way you’re going to move from “life holding you by the tail” to “life under control”. Step 2: Prioritize The List – Top to bottom with the most important on top. It’s imperative to ask God to help you with this step. You need discernment to understand where each thing belongs in the order of importance. You may find as you think and pray that you will rearrange things several times before you’re satisfied that they are in the order they should be. Step 3: Assign a time value for each item - I don’t care if you do this per day or per week, but for most people, it will probably work better to assign a weekly time value since some of the items don’t necessarily happen every day (like laundry or house cleaning), but they still need to be included in your inventory. Step 4: Evaluate your list – Do the math. Is it workable? Are there enough hours in a week to accomplish everything on your list? It’s important to be honest about this. And don’t cheat on the important stuff, like rest and exercise. Step 5: Make adjustments if necessary – That’s a nice way of saying remove things from your list of responsibilities if you’ve overcommitted yourself. You’ll notice that in our test at the beginning of this video, in describing life under control, I included in the definition “accomplishing the things you need to…”. This is different than doing everything you’d like to. The question here is – what are the things I really need to accomplish, and what are the extras? Are there things you really need to be doing that you’re not – like Bible study, prayer and time for meditation on the things of God? How about spending adequate time with your children, imparting things of eternal value to them? If it seems that less important things are pushing aside things which are of greater importance and significance, then you have a problem and you must make an adjustment. “Heaven with its attractions is before you, an eternal weight of glory, which you may lose or gain. Which shall it be? Your life and your character will testify the choice you have made. I feel the more anxious because I see so many indifferent upon the subjects of infinite importance. They are always busy here and there about matters of minor importance, and the one great subject is put out of their thoughts. They have no time to pray, no time to watch, no time to search the Scriptures. They are altogether too busy to make the necessary preparation for the future life. They cannot devote time to perfect Christian characters and in diligence to secure a title to heaven.” Our High Calling, 44 It may be helpful for husbands and wives to go through these steps together. Perhaps some of the things which really need to be done can be redistributed between you to help each of you accomplish the most important things. If you’ve overcommitted yourself, you’ll probably find it difficult to actually make the decision and take the steps to lessen your load. If that’s the case, ask yourself these questions – “Is it worth it to miss out on eternity, or to see a child or spouse miss out on eternity because you’re unwilling to accept fewer outside responsibilities? Is it worth it to sacrifice your health, potentially jeopardizing your influence and maybe even your presence in the life of your children or grandchildren – just so you can keep pursuing your ambitions to accomplish all the things you want to in this life?” As Jesus put it, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37 Step 6: Taking into account all the evaluation you’ve done, plan your daily schedule. We’ve all done this before. The problem is, that for many, the schedule has gone by the wayside. So here are a few tips to help it stick this time. A. Plan your most important activities – like devotional time – early, when you’re least likely to be interrupted. B. Schedule and discipline yourself to get to bed early. That’s the only way you can consistently get up early. Notice this advice: “Make it a habit not to sit up after nine o'clock. Every light should be extinguished.” Daughters of God, 177 C. Don’t get discouraged when unavoidable and important interruptions come along – that’s just the way life is. This is why many get discouraged with keeping a schedule. Here’s the key: When that happens, learn to be fluid and flexible. Rearrange the rest of your day, but quickly reassess what remains to be done and make sure you do the more important things in the remaining time, rather than simply sticking with what’s on your schedule. Dear Heavenly Father, please guide us as we examine our lives, our priorities, and how we are spending our time. We ask that you would help us to make good decisions for eternity – in Jesus name, Amen. I’ve put together a worksheet to help you through this process of taking inventory and making decisions about your time commitments. But before I tell you how you can get the link for that worksheet, I want to mention something especially for those who haven’t yet signed up for this series. Through the course of these presentations we’ll be making some important resources available only through our e-mail notifications. If you want to be on that mailing list, just enter your information in the form just above this transcript. Now, for the worksheet that goes with this presentation – you’ll find that link at the bottom of this page. Clicking the link will open the pdf document which you can then save to your computer. Thank you for joining us for “Total Preparedness”, in our next presentation, we’ll consider this question - “Does food really have something to do with our spiritual preparedness?" You won’t want to miss that one. Until then, God bless you! First Step Worksheet - PDF (CLICK HERE) |
