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F Fatigue
Satan Called a Worldwide Convention…
The huge crowd hushed as he stepped up to speak, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do something else.” He paused, everyone listened.
"We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ.
“This is what I want you to do. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining a vital connection through their day!"
"How shall we do this?", shouted his angels.
"Simple, keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend and spend, then, borrow and borrow. Convince the wives to go to work and the husbands to work 6 or 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. Tell them they are doing it FOR their children, ah, that one works well. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.
"Overstimulate their minds so that they cannot hear THE still small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, the VCR, and their CD's going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.
"Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products, services, and false hopes.
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion. Don't let them encourage or uplift each other, keep those who are the gifted encouragers, especially busy and worn out. And above all when they get together keep them from praying for one another.
"Let them be involved in soul-winning. But crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family unity for the good of the cause."
It was quite a convention in the end. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments trying to cause Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy and rush here and there...
—Author Unknown
Source: In the "Pastor's Helper" email discussion list
Topics/Tags: Priorities; Time; Fatigue; Rest
"If an unusual necessity forces us onward, a surprising thing occurs. The fatigue gets worse up to a certain point, then, gradually or suddenly, it passes away and we are fresher than before! We have evidently tapped a new level of energy. There may be layer after layer of this experience, a third and a fourth wind.
"We find amounts of ease and power that we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength habitually not taxed, because habitually we never push through the obstruction of fatigue."
Source: William James, psychologist and philosopher
Topics/Tags: Fatigue; Perseverance; Energy; Strength
Browse By Topic F Fatigue