Today’s Reading

Psalms 41-43; Acts 24

Selected Verses

By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.    Psalm 41:11-12

After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.  And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.”   Acts 24:24-25

Reflections

Procrastination is not only the thief of time, but also the handiest and flimsiest excuse of those who have no desire or intention of taking some needed and radical course of action or making a difficult and important decision.  My father used to carry around in his pocket a small wooden disk with the inscription “TUIT.”  If I said to him, “I’ll do that when I get around to it,” he would smile, reach into his pocket, pull out the little disk and hand it to me saying, “Here, now you’ve got a round TUIT.”  He finally let me keep the round TUIT permanently as I always seemed to need it.

Felix, the governor, had power over Paul, his prisoner, but not over the God of judgment of whom Paul spoke.  That topic alarmed him, but, like so many others today and down through history, he deluded himself with the thought that he would think about it later, when he got around to it.

Believers in Jesus Christ are not alarmed by the thought of standing before the God of judgment.  Like the Psalmist, we know that the Lord delights in us and that, rather than be swept away in condemnation, we will stand accepted before Him forever.  The true believer has a desire for God not unlike the desperate need for air and water, so we say,

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  (Psalm 42:1-2)

Think about it

Is that your mindset, that you must know more of God?  Do you crave His presence, His Word, His will in your life?  Beware of the Felix mentality of saying, “when I get around to it.”  Now is the time to seek the Lord, to study His word, to pray, to obey, to be in worship with His people, and to make diligent use of the means of grace.

© 2017 John A Carroll  Used by permission