Welcome back to Aspastor John. This summer Pastor John is out of the studio preaching in Belfast in Scotland before returning to the States for a 40-day writing leave to finish up a book on Providence on the sovereignty of God a book he started last summer and hopes to finish this summer I cannot wait to see it and all of it the travel the book writing in this very podcast is all made possible by you we are supported by the prayers and the funding of God's people so thank you for generously

investing in this important and eternal work so with Pastor John busy we're diving into our archive of 1500 episodes and this summer we're pulling out some of your favorites about once every 50 episodes we release one that touches a nerve and touches the 300,000 play mark these are the elite episodes in our six and a half year history we only have about 30 of them and here's one of them

so how has God at work in our most unproductive days when it feels as though we've accomplished nothing and we fall so far short of our own plans and our own expectations those days are so frustrating to us but they are never outside of God's sovereign power

it leads to today's question on what efficiency looks like in the first place a very good question from a listener named Melinda hello pastor John thank you for this podcast back in episode 1115 about caring for those with dementia you close your remarks with this phrase quote

God's priorities for efficiency in this life are not hours in quote can you please elaborate on this for me I struggle mightily with time management skills and I'm a homeschooling mom trying to balance kids needs and activities ministry household duties and sleep I feel overwhelmed with the need to be efficient every minute when it does not come naturally to me what should efficiency look like in the busy Christian life I will explain what I

mean by saying God's priorities for efficiency in this life are not hours but let me say first and right off the bat that the reason I want anybody to know that is not so that they can get more done

but so that they do what they do in the right spirit okay so that that's preface over everything I have to say so now what do I mean by saying God's priorities for efficiency in this life are not hours I mean that our priority may be that between 10 and 11 this morning I plan to run to the bank

and get some cash so that I can be back in time to pay the boy the teenager who is cutting my grass while a neighbor watches my two and four year old for me that's the plan and you feel good I feel good I'm making this up I feel good that I worked it out I worked it out so that the neighbor was available and the teenager could come and then I could get to the bank

and get back before both of them had other engagements those those are my priorities and and I have an efficient plan cut grass kids watched bank trip made boy paid everyone off to their next engagement victory efficiency that's what I mean by our our efficiency however God in this case has a totally different set of priorities

your neighbor was scheduled to be at a real estate office at 11 30 so she could join her husband to close on a new house a house which which unbeknownst to them has a flawed foundation the teenager was planning to take his money from cutting the grass and pool it with some of the guys and buy some drugs that they shouldn't be using you hit a traffic jam caused by a roll over a semi which has another unleash story behind it

and you're locked up on the freeway for an hour you never even get to the bank you rush home as fast as you can you get to an hour late no money to pay the boy and your neighbor has missed her appointment you are frustrated almost tears your efficiency proved utterly useless to accomplish your priorities you failed

but God's priorities totally succeeded he wanted to hinder that boy from buying drugs he wanted to spare the neighbor from purchasing a house that's a lemon and he wanted to grow your faith in his sovereign wisdom now that's what I mean by God's priorities for efficiency in this life are not ours and in my view

this isn't happening just now and then it's happening all the time when you read the Bible you see in virtually every book the story of God doing things that are not the way humans would do them or want them done God almost never takes the shortest route between point A and point B

and the reason is that such efficiency the efficiency of speed and directness is not what he's about his purpose is to sanctify the traveler not speed him between A and B

frustrating human efficiency is one of God's primary I say primary not secondary means of sanctifying grace the story of Joseph Genesis 37 to 50 is one of the clearest examples

Joseph is hated by his brothers thrown in a pit sold in his slavery sold a pot of her accused of sexual harassment thrown into prison forgotten by Pharaoh's butler and then finally what's that 17 years in made vice president of Egypt so that he could save his family from starvation moral of the story

chapter 50 verse 20 he says to his brothers you meant it for evil God meant it God had an agenda God had a plan God meant it for good so you guys you rascals were the traffic jam that kept me from getting to the bank for 17 years but God was positioning me to be the savior of my people

and he was in no hurry and I was being tested at every single point would I trust him with his seemingly meaningless inefficiency which it wasn't and when Paul was was trying to get to Spain instead he had a plan he has a really good plan

going to go to Jerusalem can deliver the money going to get on a boat going to go to Rome going to gather some support going to be in my life in Spain what a great plan he found himself in prison in Rome what did he say what did he say in Philippians 112 I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel

so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard into all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ so his priorities for efficiently getting to Spain were shattered but God's purposes to evangelize the imperial guard in Rome run on track so here's the implication for Melinda

by all means make your list of to do's for the day by all means get as good as that as you can get prioritized the list yep first things first make your plan do that the very best you can go ahead read a book about it

but then walk in peace and freedom that when it shatters on the rocks of reality which it will most days remember you're not being measured by God by how much you get done you're being measured by whether you trust the goodness and the wisdom and the sovereignty of God to work this new mess

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