During the eighties, time management became very popular in the business world. I purchased the latest organizers with a to-do list and put them to good use every day. I developed my daily, weekly, and monthly schedule to make sure all my projects meet their deadlines and that I never missed an important meeting. At the end of each day, I reviewed my progress and found satisfaction in crossing off or checking off my completed tasks.
Even in retirement, I still use a to-do list to keep me on track with writing deadlines or other major activities. And I still love the feeling that comes from completing a task and marking it as finished. At a recent writer’s conference, a friend mentioned how sometimes we get trapped into the doing the simple things first so we can check them off instead of putting in the effort to complete the more hard tasks. Guilty as charged. Sometimes, I worked to clear the most items from the list instead of those of greatest value to the work.
Biblical To-Do List
What can we learn about to-do lists from the Bible? And does this to-do list mentality carry over into our faith life? God gave Moses a specific to-do list for building the tabernacle in Exodus 26 and Jesus gave the disciples a detailed to-do list when He sent them out in pairs in Matthew 10:5-14. So, nothing is wrong with planning out and using such lists. Do you have a godly list or do you just use them for your career and personal life?
Godly To-Do List
What are some items we might put on a godly list? Here’s one example:
- Read the Bible daily.
- Pray daily.
- Go to church.
- Love others, even the difficult people.
- Share the Gospel with others.
These are all good things to have on a to-do. But they’re only beneficial when we see them as a way to deepen our relationship with God. So, we need to be careful that they don’t become only a checklist to complete. And, do we still pick the easier things to do first so we can check more off our Godly to-do list? Let’s dig further.
Hard to Complete
It’s easy for most of us to do the first three items on the above list and feel like we are acting like Christ. But God calls us to more than just the simple parts of our faith. Jesus calls all of us to love others and to share the Gospel, but we shy away from these because we believe they are too difficult and make us uncomfortable. We will never reach a time when we can separate ourselves from God because we checked off everything on our spiritual to-do list, but that does not mean we quit trying to do all the things God calls us to do.
A New To-do Way of Life
With faith, we need to set the to-do list based on God’s plans for us. We need to put God first in everything we do and pray for His direction daily. Instead of a list that we check off, we might add items like:
- Find joy in Christ.
- Don’t judge others.
- Offer love to all those we meet.
- Encourage others.
- Let our faith shine before others.
By living a faith-filled life instead of a to-do faith, we will inspire others and make an impact in the world—and confidence will flow out of that faith.
Grace and Peace to you,
Yvonne M. Morgan is a Christian #author, #blogger, and #speaker. #BibleGatewayPartner
Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
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