No Procrastination

Joshua 18:1-5 -  The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The country was brought under their control,  but there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance.  So Joshua said to the Israelites: "How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?  Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it, according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me.  You are to divide the land into seven parts. Judah is to remain in its territory on the south and the house of Joseph in its territory on the north.

 

The Israelites gathered at Shiloh to move the Tabernacle from Gilgal. It was time to give the tabernacle a permanent home…and the other seven tribes needed to know where they would inherit land. But something else was bothering Joshua’s spirit….they had not yet driven out all the Cannaanites.  Joshua simply reminds them…as they are moving the tabernacle that there were many people yet to conquer…and he was concerned that they had put off the directions of God to drive every Canaanite out of the Promised Land.

 

It’s our human nature to procrastinate when things are hard. Maybe they saw the high cost of war as unnecessary.…maybe they thought they could just settle around them...continuing to nurture the nomadic way they had lived the previous 45 years.  The leftover Canaanites were a peaceful people…certainly no threat…so many of them had become slaves….and the rest were more than willing to trade with the Israelites what they needed in exchange for their lives.  Maybe they saw the benefits of these settlements and simply thought it was okay…killing them would be so useless. The reasons really don’t matter.  It was disobedience to God’s direct orders…plain and simple…and Joshua took the opportunity to remind him.

 

I was reminded as soon as I looked at the clock that I too have a major problem with procrastination. I hit that snooze button one time too many…and it was really the dismiss button…and now I am running late again. Maybe I thought an extra 5 minutes would help me think better….but it didn’t work out that way. I sit once again at my computer…a lot later than usual….and my thoughts are not totally focused on God as they should be. Satan tricked me this morning once again.

 

 My humanness once again has me thanking the father that God loves me so much that he is patient with my disobedience…my procrastination… and even uses it to help me understand why I should work harder to be more zealous with this task he gave me to do.  He is reminding me this morning that I need to be careful…because there will come a day when it is too late….and my lack of passion…my failure to do what he tells me to do will result in much harsher consequences than the threat of being late to work.

 

Father...forgive me for my failure to jump out of bed and eagerly run to you each morning. Help me to ask you for added strength to start my day with you.  Help me hear your voice calling me when I wake…so I can hear what you have to teach me…and write it down quickly…and let it sink into my soul and give me strength to be your servant.  And even as I write the obvious this morning…I realize that there are probably many things you have told me to do that have been left undone. Oh father…give me discernment and memory to remember all the tasks you have given me to do…and the wisdom to prioritize them to bring the most glory to your kingdom. Amen.