Pastor’s Pen: What must we keep out of our lives to make them better?

You probably either love it or loathe it! Football fans are enjoying every minute of it. The football World Cup in Brazil is here. In between the matches there is a good question you might like to ponder on, ‘Can football make my life better?’

One of the least glamorous positions in football is goalkeeping. Yet if the goalkeeper makes a mistake it can lead to the team conceding a goal and losing the game. So every goalkeeper’s motto is, ‘I must keep the ball out.’

To answer my earlier question I think there are three aspects of everyday life we need to keep out of our lives to make them better...

(1) Pride – the bible teaches us about the destructive impact of pride. We read in Proverbs ‘when pride comes then comes disgrace’, ‘pride only breeds quarrels’ and ‘a man’s pride brings him low.’

It can be good to be proud and take delight and satisfaction in one’s own efforts. But pride can also be destructive when it leads you to be stubborn when you have done something wrong and won’t admit or apologise.

(2) Procrastination – is putting off to tomorrow what you could do today!

We need not to be tempted to put off to tomorrow what God is leading us to do today.

What might God be asking people to do today? In Micah chapter 6 verse 8 the prophet teaches that what God requires of people today is ‘to act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with God.’

(3) Preoccupation – I was visiting a church member in hospital recently. She has been in hospital for six weeks. Much of it confined to bed. This is understandably a difficult time for someone. I asked her how she was feeling? She told me about the medical problem, diagnosis and prognosis. Then she said something that made me think. She said: “Enough about me. Tell me what’s happening with you and your family?”

Jesus taught in Mark chapter 10 verse 45: ‘The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ God calls us to lay down our lives for one another. In this plan there is joy and fulfilment.