If you were to divide up your days and hours, where do you spend your time? Are they idols? Distractions? or ?????
 
We all have to sleep and most of us have to work. Here is a very general example:
 
Sleep = 7 hours (who really gets 8 anymore?)
Work = 10 hours (including average commute time)
Dinner = 1 hour (includes prep and clean up)
Hygiene = 1 hour (we can't forget this, please and this is average time)
 
So that is the basics and we're at 19 hours in a 24 hour day. That leaves us 5 hours. What are you doing with those 5 hours? Email... TV.... Video and Computer Games.... Hobbies..... Gossiping.... Drinking....
 
What about God? Shouldn't you make time for Him? Isn't He the most important? Then shouldn't there be time for your family?
 
Will anyone die if you don't read the stupid forwarded email you get? I can promise you the 'good luck mantra' or 'bad luck fairy' will not be effected by what you do in email. BTW - Bill Gates and AOL are going to send you money for you to forward anything. They both have plenty and don't plan to share it. TV is full of junk, turn it off, cancel the cable and save some money. Video and Computer Games are junk and turn you brain to mush. Hobbies can overtake your life too. Nothing good EVER comes from gossip. Drinking, hanging out at bars, does nothing but make you smell like a cigarette and wake up with a headache.
 
What have been listed above are just a start and I'm sure there are others, but what about putting things into priority and perspective. As Solomon says, it's futile. All of it! Jesus Christ is the only thing that lasts forever. But how much time are you giving to Him in His Word and prayer... daily. Is He not worth the sacrifice? And what sacrifice is it really? If you think it's a sacrifice now, how will you feel when we will be worshiping Him continually in Heaven.
 
You can enjoy your email, games, tv and hobbies... as long as you keep it in perspective and remember Who is #1. If you need to set a timer to get yourself in the habit, then do it. Love is not a sacrifice. Jesus make the sacrifice and all He's asking for is our obedience out of our love for HIM.
 
Is He not worth the couple of extra minutes in the morning or at night? Minutes? Is that all you have? Are you only giving Him the crumbs of your day and time?
 
We know Salvation is a gift. Christ did the work on the cross for us. There is nothing more we can do. We are sealed and seated at the right hand of Jesus. Accept Christ, go to Heaven. Salvation is done.
 
Hebrews 9:14 "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"
 

Hebrews 9:26 "Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself."

 

 
But if you are born again and you stay on this Earth, what happens? Well at Salvation the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you. If you don't nourish the Holy Spirit, what happens? The world takes over and you don't get the chance for sanctification because you're looking laterally and not vertically. Looking vertically is more then a song on the radio, a sermon once a week. It's getting into a deep, personal relationship with Jesus. It takes a lifetime to do, but the being transformed into His likeness... there is nothing like it. We may go through trials and tests, but what comes out on the other side, is beautiful, refined.
 
Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."