Who doesn’t want God’s peace and a closer walk with Him?   Last time we talked about prioritizing prayer, bible studying and meditating on scripture. But are there items we should take off our agenda?  After all, time management is all about taking away to do’s and not adding more. There are definitely a few things that Jesus spoke of negatively that we should remind ourselves often.  These are things we can all safely take off the list. But when you read what they are you might see they aren’t as easy to remove as we would have hoped.  

  • Do not worry. Jesus’ number one negative command is do not fear or worry. Not an easy task right? How can you not worry?  I would say it is an almost impossible request, but Jesus says it. When Jesus says something that seems impossible on our own then there must be a reason he says it. That reason is that we must turn to him more and more. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to be the one who fills us. Put that on the list today. Don’t worry or fear but let the Holy Spirit work it out.
  • Don’t be a manipulative fake. Well Jesus doesn’t exactly say this. He says don’t be a hypocrite which is pretty much the same thing. A cursory review of the gospel when looking for an enemy of Jesus- plot twist here- God’s own leaders. They’ve become manipulators pretending to be what they aren’t using God’s own rules to work against God’s interest. This command to remove hypocrisy from our “to-do” list should be a bit easier to do than not worrying, but watch out. We are very fond of getting our own way and having other people think well of us…no matter what it takes.
  • Don’t be about riches. Given our radical concentration and dependence on riches for a lot of us, this probably strikes us as disconcertingly. What we probably really wanted to hear in our more self-centered moments is this: I will give you lots of stuff so you don’t need to worry and you can manipulate others with it. (For Jesus’ own good of course). But Jesus doesn’t say this. Instead, he warns about the overt focus and dependence on riches. He seems to imply that riches can often make it harder for us to love God and to serve him because it gives a false place of dependence. God doesn’t say you will never have or should never have money…just don’t love it if you do.
  • Don’t be about revenge. God is all about justice and protection of the innocent. (On one hand this should make us feel good, and on the other hand it should make us a bit nervous because we aren’t necessarily always about this ourselves.)  Jesus emphatically taught against personal revenge and grudges. This is something natural man takes as a given right. (Go ahead and study primitive cultures without a Christian background for a bit.) Jesus even goes as far as to say that if we are going to seek personal revenge instead of forgiveness, that God will cut us off from our key way of communicating with God which is prayer. God wants us to willing to trust him to make things right either by the institutions he has designed, by the judgement at the end of the age, or will be made right by Jesus himself by his sacrifice on the cross. He infinitely cares about the damage done and the pain, but he does not want us to double the pain by meditating on it and focusing on our own unforgiveness and revenge.

Imagine the radical life with this six point agenda of which four items are don’t do’s. Add on prayer and meditation of the word of God and take off worry, fake living, excessive money issues, and revenge. How could we not help but get closer to God, connect better to God, and have more peace? (Notice that this is not a formula to become a doctor or stock broker but get closer to God.)  Take off four things that occupy our thoughts and actions and drain us, and add on two things that revive us. We are given 24 hours in a day, and we can all use less to do. It won’t be an easy task. But what else in an eternal universe, and we as eternal creations, have better to do with our time?

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