The following Bible verse gives us a good reason why you should not procrastinate: “You know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14, KJV).
This verse reminds us about the uncertainty of life. No matter how diligently we plan for tomorrow, we can’t know what tomorrow will bring. This verse also reminds us of the brevity of human life. It is likened to a vapor that’s here today and gone tomorrow.
No matter how diligently we strive to live a long and healthy life, we don’t even know if we will live to see tomorrow.
That’s why we should not put off until tomorrow what we can do today. But really, how seriously do we take this verse? How much does its truth govern our actions? Perhaps all of us are guilty of procrastination at one time or another. We tend to think we always have time to do things later.
Time Waits for No One
Why do we procrastinate? That’s a loaded question. One reason is because of plain old fear–fear of the challenge or of an undesirable outcome. Some people procrastinate because of their sense of inadequacy to accomplish their goal. Others, because of a lack of faith in God.
Of course, some people are just procrastinators at heart. They can’t give you a good reason why they postpone nearly everything they say they are going to do. “That’s just me,” they say. These are just a few reasons why we put off things that we want or need to do.
The main problem with procrastination is the presumption that there will always be tomorrow. Based upon the verse above, that is not necessarily true.
For instance, I know a couple of times when someone who was very ill came to my mind. I said I was going to go and see about and pray for the person. But because I waited too many days before going, by the time I arrived, unfortunately the person had already died.
Then I know several people who for years talked about going back to college and finishing their study. Several years later they were no closer to going back to college, and each year the window of opportunity became smaller.
The bottom line is that we should not procrastinate because time waits for no one.
Do It Today
So, what is it that you believe God is calling you to do? Or what opportunities has He provided you that you have yet to act upon? They say opportunity knocks only once. That may not always be true. But one thing for sure is that opportunity does not knock forever. Neither is life for an eternity.
My friend, if you are a person who tends to procrastinate, you will miss out on some good things God wants to do in your life. That’s because, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV). To properly add this problem, you must be diligent to abandon the habit of putting off until tomorrow what you can or need to do today.
Listen to the words of James more completely: ‘Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow…’ (James 4:13-14a, NIV).
Therein lies the problem. You do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
Copyright © 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.