10 Ways in Which You Can Waste Your
Time Being a Christian:
1. Allow yourself to be bitter against someone who has
hurt you.
Bitterness will destroy your spiritual life and take others down with you
(Hebrews 12:15).
2. Use your time, your money, and your resources only for
yourself and your needs.
In other words, live life for yourself (and your immediate family) rather
than for others.
3. Spend little to no time with the Lord in solitude –
just you and Him alone.
Fill your life with all sorts of other activities. Stay busy.
4. Neglect reading the Scriptures.
They reveal Christ and contain God’s life (John 5:39; 6:63; 2 Timothy 3:16).
They are food for your spirit. To neglect them is to starve your spirit.
5. Defame others or misrepresent them or their work (especially
fellow believers).
Don’t go to them directly if you have a concern or problem and ask them for
clarity. (And if you do go to them, don’t listen to what they have to say.) Be
not deceived: To speak ill about or misrepresent another follower of Jesus is
to speak ill about or misrepresent Jesus Himself. And He doesn’t take it kindly
(Matthew 25:40; Acts 9:1-4; Titus 3:2).
6. Rarely (or never) read books with spiritual depth
...or listen to Christ-centered messages by other servants of God. Forget
the contribution of the body of Christ, past and present. Throw out spiritual
education. Live under the delusion that all you need is the Holy Spirit and
your Bible. (If you want to tune-up in this area, I recommend all the books in
the “Spiritual Growth” shelf
on this list.)
7. Have no fellowship or relationship with other
believers.
Live as a solo Christian. Use the excuse that you can’t find any other
Christians who love Jesus like you do.
8. Let envy and jealousy take hold of your heart and
drive your actions.
Envy and jealousy is often the root behind slander. Incidentally, countless
Christians don’t know what slander looks like and fail to recognize it when
it’s right in front of them. So be sure to read
this article so you know how to recognize it. Engaging in or
listening to slander proves toxic to your spiritual life.
9. Never learn from your mistakes nor take
responsibility for them.
Blame others instead. And never apologize to the people you’ve wronged.
10. Waste every crisis that comes into your life.
A crisis is a difficult and unwelcome opportunity to discover Jesus Christ
in a new way. Don’t look for the hand of God behind the crisis and submit to
it. Forget James and Peter who both said, “Humble yourself under God’s mighty
hand, and He will exalt you.” (1 Peter 5:7; James 4:10)
Blame
God instead.
The above is in no particular order. And many other points can be added to
the list. But each of these is a sure-fire way to hamper your growth in Christ
and waste your time being a follower of Jesus.
In addition, I’d give this list to all new Christians as elements to begin
focusing their lives upon (only I’d reword them to make them positives).
See also,
Why
I Gave Up Living the Christian Life
If you had to pick 2 or 3 on this list as the most important, which ones
would you select and why?
FRANK VIOLA is a popular conference
speaker and the best-selling author of numerous books on the deeper Christian
life, including "Revise Us Again," "From Eternity to Here,"
"Epic Jesus," and "Jesus Manifesto" (co-authored with
Leonard Sweet). His blog, "Beyond Evangelical," is rated as one of
the most popular in Christian circles today: www.frankviola.org If you wish to
comment on this post, please post it directly on www.frankviola.org
More from Frank Viola or visit Frank at www.FrankViola.org
