Vacations, Retirement and Self-Employment

Who doesn't love vacation time?  Although some do get bored if the break is too long, I certainly haven't met many who don't enjoy the occasional time off.  I sure have been enjoying my time away from work this summer.  How about retirement?  I know my mom loves hers. She likes having her time to do as she pleases or nothing if she so desires. Also, my husband along with many others dream of being their own boss.  

Although all three of these have their time and place, these ideas don't work well in regards to our walk with God.  Psalms chapter one verses one and two talk about how blessed the person is who meditates on God's laws day and night.  The New Testament tells us, "Do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased" (Hebrews 13:16).  These are only two of the many verses that give us insight into how we are to live.  God's commands seem to be for every day of the year not just for the work week.  

In addition to not taking vacations from His will, we can't retire from it.  Paul says, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).  We must continue strong to the end. As a Christian we are not allowed to say that I have put in my thirty years now it is someone else's turn.  We don't have the privilege of retiring from our Christian walk.

As a Christian in His service another thing we can't do is be self employed.  We have been bought by the high price of Christ's life and therefore must glorify Him (1 Corinthians 6:20).  We don't have the right to do what we want when we want.  We work for Him and no longer ourselves.

 

The reason I wrote this article this week is because I have been in a vacation mentality this summer, and I need to get out of it.  I need to get back on track with a plan for my reading.  Hope you all are having a wonderful summer but not falling into this or any of the other pitfalls that I just wrote about.  Would love to hear how you avoid falling into these traps.

Jane

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), Copyright(c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.