Hope City Church (Grace Brethren) of Norwalk

Note fromPastor: “Putting Off Procrastination” Part 4 Sanctification for procrastinators is extra hard because sanctification (growing in Christ) takes time; no one is sanctified right away. We procrastinators are always dreaming about and looking for the magic silver bullet, and this longing exposes our laziness and unbelief in the power of progressive sanctification. What then should we do? The unmistakable answer is repent. Repentance is a joyful essential of the Christian life, and a gracious gift from God. We should daily repent of both clearly definable acts of sin and general attitudes in the heart. When we repent, we experience the forgiveness of God that frees us to pursue Him more fervently. Repentance is always the first step in the process of change. When we refuse to repent, we reveal that we don’t really want to change. Without repentance, we are guilt-driven people relying on our own strength and our own skewed perception of our problems (2 Corinthians 7:9-10). With repentance, we can be grace-driven people with God’s strength and a more biblical perspective of our problems. As repentance becomes more a part of our daily lives, it takes on a forward-looking character. As we pray for forgiveness, it helps us to look ahead to future situations of temptation and to be better prepared to face it. Real change always follows on the heels of real repentance. Repenting of my sin of procrastination, I didn’t have to “fake force” myself to finish every little unfinished task, or hide behind the “coast setting” until a “better time” to complete my work came around. I learned to accept some losses and focus on absolute top priorities. My time in the Word and in prayer with God became my top priority; after this was time with family, my physical health, and studies. As I have grown in my understanding of my procrastination, I have learned it impacts other people in my life, not just myself. The “work-arounders” of 2 Thessalonians 3:11 (“busybodies”), draw other people into their procrastination to suffer with them. 1 Thessalonians 4:12, explains why Paul treated the sin of procrastination so seriously: “so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” Our witness to outsiders, and our love for the church and family can be crippled by procrastination. Procrastinators unload the burden of their work onto others. If I’m not getting my work done, someone is certainly getting it done. Procrastination breaks the command of “love your neighbor as yourself.” It is tempting to think that none of our sin affects anyone but ourselves, but that is not the case. Overcoming procrastination involves learning to serve others as Christ has served me; seeing others as more important than oneself (Philippians 2:1-8).