Yesterday ended is a podcast dedicated to the healing words of Jesus Christ and his story of redemption. Each podcast contains an original poem so that I can portray a confession of our faith of scripture in unique and succinct ways. Come with me on a journey to become a new creation and to declare old things dead and our life anew in Christ. What we meditate on will determine the direction and fruit of our lives. Let's live today speaking the words of life.
The victory we have in Christ can be felt in our everyday life. We can overcome depression. We can overcome fear. We can be confident. We can be free from worry. We can be free from anxiety. We can have emotional healing. We can have hope. We can be set free from our past. The Bible declares the goodness of God. The Bible is more than Christian psychology it is truth. The truth of God brings mental health, spiritual health and physical health. We can walk in peace. We can overcome the traumas of life.
How have you spent your time today? Have you managed your time well? What have you accomplished? How do you invest the hours of your days? Welcome to yesterday healing the traumas of life. Time is your most precious possession. What are you doing with it? I'm your host Dennis Dobbin and I'm here to teach you about spending time. Give a listen.
How have you spent your time today? Have you managed your time well? What have you accomplished? How do you invest the hours of your days? Welcome to Yesterday Ended Healing the Traumas of Life. Time is your most precious possession. What are you doing with it? I'm your host Dennis Dobin, and I'm here to teach you about spending time. Give a listen. One morning I was spending some time with my Heavenly Father. Since I am a tea drinker, one day I came up with a name for my time with the Lord as I drink my tea. A cup of tea and thee. I looked the phrase up on the internet and found out I wasn't original. Anyway, that one morning, instead of a cup of tea and the Lord, it turned into a cup of tea and me. My mind had drifted into a daydream. I started thinking about something that I wanted. Nothing ungodly, but I had stopped spending time with my heavenly Father and was daydreaming about me. As I turned back to the Lord, he showed me what was going on with my heart. He showed me the drifting away was a form of anxiety. I needed to trust in Him to provide. I needed to pray for my unfulfilled desire instead of daydreaming about it. I needed to surrender to Him. I've gotten to the point where I even somewhat rationalize how I spent that time by calling it a pray dream instead of a daydream. Amazingly, the Lord has on a few occasions brought me the desires of my heart that I have prayed dreamed about attaining. He is gracious. But being honest, I have to admit at times to thinking more about my life instead of praying for it. So how do we invest the hours we have every day? Doing or doubting, static or in action? How are we spending time? What do I do in the morning, at noon, the evening, and at night? Am I thinking of darkness or living in the light? How am I spending my time? Am I living today or reliving my past? Am I going backwards or moving forward? Am I listening to the lies or the truth I have heard? How am I spending my time? What is the return of my time invested? What fruit do I have of my planted seeds? Something that brings life or dead weeds? How am I spending my time? Is my time with the Lord now a habit? Is worship and prayer and reading a good routine? Am I focused on the eternal or just on the scene? How am I spending my time? For many, many years of my life there was a word that somewhat haunted me. It's the word accomplish. Having been a bad procrastinator and daydreamer in my younger days, this word accomplish helped push me forward. To show that haunting voice I wasn't wasting my time, I used to keep a very detailed record of what I did every day on a daily schedule. I used to keep these schedules in my files. There was a benefit for my business of keeping track of hours, there was a benefit of remembering where I was at certain times to help track expenses. And it also gave me validation that I had accomplished something each day. So their haunting voice, I did something. Up until a few months ago, out of a very long habit, I was still keeping detailed records of my activities on my computer calendar. Long story short, while trying to remove my personal data from a computer I gave to my church, I inadvertently erased my calendar for the last several years. All of it. Not only from that computer, but from all my devices. Ah And then the Lord giggled and had me think about what I had been doing. I am not the procrastinator I used to be, and my daydreaming has vastly decreased. Still working on it. So I no longer needed to keep extremely detailed records of what I do to prove to myself I have accomplished something. Because now I'm active, not static. My life is fruitful because I'm taking time to plant good seed. I am investing my time in fruitful activities. I've said it on a number of other podcasts, but it is something I will repeat many times more. Many years ago the Lord gave me a very simple instruction. A simple phrase that has great impact pray more, think less. This is where the challenge of my daydreaming had been a problem. I'd spend time thinking about what I wanted instead of praying for it. I can think about how I can acquire something, but my mind is finite, whereas God is infinite, and praying to him has far more impact than just me thinking. Consider the instruction Jesus gave us in Matthew chapter six, verses nineteen through twenty one. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Where is your heart? And what is in your heart? What treasure have you hid in your heart? Another aspect of how we are spending our time is are we concerned only with our life here or do we have an eternal mindset? In what do we invest our time? Here's a tricky one to consider. The majority of people who have jobs work around forty hours a week. This is a time priority, but it isn't always a heart priority. We need to work to provide for ourselves, and Colossians gives us an understanding of the proper mindset concerning our time spent at work. Colossians chapter three verses twenty two through twenty four. Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it hardly as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Whoever employs us is not the one we work for. We should always realize that Christ is our Lord and master. We work for him. Work is honorable. Consider living in the Garden of Eden. What did God give Adam to do? Genesis chapter two verse fifteen. And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. Adam did not lay around the garden of Eden picking fruit that was growing by itself. The word dress in this verse is also translated till in verse five. Adam was the gardener in the Garden of Eden. God placed him there to work the soil and protect it. God did not intend us to be lazy. We should be concerned with how we are spending our time. Ecclesiastes chapter three verses twelve and thirteen. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. The context of this verse is the things that people do how we labor. Solomon said that there was no good in them but that we can rejoice and do good in our lives, and that we should be able to eat and drink and enjoy the good of our labor. God calls enjoying the good or benefit of work a gift. What is our attitude towards work? Do we accept how God designed us to live? God designed us to work, but not be workaholics. He instituted the Sabbath because we need a day of rest. He designed us that we should do good in our lives and be thankful that we can enjoy the fruit of our labor. Though we work and are paid for it, we must always remember that God is the one that supplies our needs. The Lord is our shepherd we shall not want. So why should we worry? Let's go back to Matthew chapter six and see what Jesus had to say about this. Matthew six twenty five. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Worry does not cause things to grow. Jesus had something to say about that too in Matthew chapter six twenty seven. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? One thing that worry can accomplish is give us ulcers and turn dark hair gray prematurely, to say the least. Throughout this episode I am endeavoring to stir up your minds concerning how you spend your time both physically and mentally. My example of my daydreaming shows what I have spent my time doing mentally. Going through the design of God concerning work shows how we can spend our time physically. Both are important. There's an old quote that teaches us to plan our work and then work our plan. Planning the work is the mental side of how we spend our time. Working the plan is the physical side. In recent times there has been a growing attitude of entitlement in a new generation. There seems to be a lack of desire to actually work to acquire what one wants. There are those who have diminished the proper work ethic attitude. I was speaking to a friend at church the other day who had run a successful carpet cleaning business for twenty seven years. He was paid by the square foot, so the amount of time to make that amount of money was up to him and his workers. The faster they worked, the more money they made. Then he switched jobs to a unionized labor that I will not identify. Suffice it to say that in this union his co laborers ridiculed him for his high work ethic. Their attitude was to do as little as possible. The book of Proverbs gives us plenty of instruction concerning how we work and the proper attitude towards work. Proverbs chapter thirteen eleven Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall increase. Gambling and playing the lottery would be good representatives of wealth gotten by vanity. In both of these somebody has to lose for you to gain. It's not very godly. On the other hand, wealth gathered by labor shall increase. Remember, the Lord rewards those that work hardly unto him. Proverbs chapter fourteen twenty three in all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty. I would like to equate daydreaming to idle chatter. There is a sort of dreaming that leads us forward. It is a thought process of planning or imagining different possibilities, but there must be action connected to those thoughts. There must be action connected to our words. If there's no action, our words are idle. Proverbs twenty one twenty five. The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labor. As my faith in God has grown, I have placed my life in his hands, and as I spoke of in the beginning of this podcast, there are things that I want that I daydream about. But I've gotten to the point that I know he will take care of me. I'd love to travel a lot. Currently don't have the funds to do as much as I'd like. But in the past, by divine appointments, I have travelled to France and Ireland by a gift from a friend. I got to spend a week in Hawaii by invitation of some friends who had a second room in their timeshare, and another friend who gave me a half price buddy pass for the airline she worked for. I had another friend who worked for an airline who gave me a similar deal where I paid a fraction of the price of the normal ticket. I went home to visit family numerous times through that arrangement. In twenty seventeen my pastor invited me to go with him on a mission trip to India. My favorite tea grows in the north of India, and I got to visit tea plantations and see the Himalayas with my own eyes. All of this I accomplished by gifts from others. This all came to me by faith in God, allowing him to be my provider. This came through prayer, not worrying or being a workaholic. In my past, as I have said, I was a terrible procrastinator. These next verses challenge my ways at that time. Proverbs chapter six nine through eleven. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man. I would substitute sleep with the word daydreaming, because that's what I used to do. I have said this to many young people to help them navigate life. The sooner you realize that life is work, the sooner you will have control over your life and not it having control over you. Our salvation is a gift. The Holy Spirit is a gift. There are many blessings in our walk with God that we obtain through His grace and through others. But we must remember that when God placed Adam in the garden of Eden, it was not for him to be lazy. Adam did not spend all his time watching the flowers grow. He helped them grow. What are you doing in the garden of your life? How are you spending your time? I was once taught a business practice that has helped me not only in business, but in so many areas of my life. The business aspect concerned paperwork. The practice was handle a piece of paper once. You get a bill in the mail, and instead of putting it in a stack of other papers to deal with later, you handled it immediately. One time. The stacks of paper on your desk will drastically diminish. When I take my dirty dishes to the kitchen, instead of piling them in the sink, I should wash them immediately. Handle a plate once. I'm getting much better at that. I am far from perfect on how I spend my time. That's what in part spurred this episode. I need this for myself. I'm not doing this podcast because I know everything. I'm doing this podcast because many times I need to hear the stuff for myself. Hopefully I am imparting some wisdom to you that has come to me through my life. I'd love to hear from you to find out if I'm doing a good job for you. You can contact me through my email at DM Dobbin at SBC Global dot net, or you can reach me through the website yesterday ended. Buzzsprout dot com. At the bottom of the show notes there is a link whereby you can text me. I'd love to hear your comments or pray with you. God bless you all. Have a great day.
