Saturday: Put It Off and Get an Ulcer
WEEK 47
SATURDAY
PUT IT OFF AND GET AN ULCER
James 1:5-8
When we turn from that ancient setting, we find the same indecisiveness and procrastination. Five million people in America decide their lives by the stars, by astrology. Because they haven’t nerve enough to make their own decisions, they let the stars do it. Or they read their fortunes in slot machines, a nickel a revelation! They go to fortune-tellers at so much a reading. They depend on games of chance. “Win a lot of money,” I heard one woman say to another as they parted, as casually as saying good-bye.
What is the result of all this hesitation and refusal to decide? It is seen in a motto on the wall of a radio station: “Don’t do it now. Put it off till tomorrow, and get an ulcer!” This indecisiveness resulting in procrastination is registering itself in our minds and our bodies. Nervous diseases are on the increase alarmingly.
The Christian has a new vocabulary: “straightway,” “immediately,” “at daybreak,” “now.” Someone asked a friend of mine if he would have a cup of coffee, “Yes or no?” The friend answered, “Never.” A principle had been decided antecedent to that particular cup of coffee, so the “never” covered that question and all questions down the line. That is what happens to fully surrendered Christians; we have a principle embodied in a Person; and when an issue comes up, we decide it in the light of that principle: “Would Jesus approve?” That puts simplicity and nerve and decisiveness into the Christian make-up. It makes for strength of personality.
Whenever we lose touch with Christ and begin to look around before we decide, we become indecisive and weak. On the one hand, I talked to two men in two days: One, a man who had been an evangelist and was strong enough to win hundreds to Christ. He got out of touch with Christ, began to compromise, and then said, “I am a weak, scared mouse.” Another, an alcoholic, kept saying: “I suppose so,” “You may be right,” “Perhaps,” but no decisive words. On the other hand, someone saw “Mary” and asked, “What’s happened to you? When I saw you last, you were a scared rabbit. What’s happened?” She answered in one word: “Jesus”—he made the difference!
O Jesus, you are the difference. Surrendered to you, our weak wills become steel; our confused minds become clarified; our confused emotions come single-pointed. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Strengthened with might in the inner core, I am able and ready and adequate for anything, yes, anything.