“I don’t know if I can handle it or not. On one hand it’s a good feeling to be offered a bigger job but the flip side of the offer is more work! I just seem like I’m going flat out now from morning to evening. The new job will put even more pressure on me. I’m not sure being upwardly mobile is the ‘be all and end all’ in life.”

“I know how you feel but you should feel honored that we asked you. There are other keen minds in this company but we have selected you. Sure, it will mean more pressures and more time on the short term but look at the other benefits. It is a fairly significant jump in salary for you. It’ll look good on your resume and if you stay on this path, you’ll be able to retire earlier than if you remained in your current job. We’ll do what we can to make it easy for you. We’ll put in your pocket the latest technology so you won’t be tied down to the office – you’ll be able to check business stuff from your home or even while you are doing the zoo thing on Saturday with the kids. We’ll do whatever we can to meet your needs because you’re the best catch we’ve had in a long time.”

Have you ever heard of the sweet, subtle and stroking strategies of Satan? Well, there’s nothing sweet about it! A new job offer could be a part of the dark sinister scheme to keep you from maximizing your potential for the Lord.

The children of Israel were thinking about deliverance from Egypt’s bondage. They finally could see a light at the end of their dark tunnel. There was a tinge of excitement in the air as they thought about The Promised Land God had in mind for them. They were thinking about going and making sacrifices to the Lord. But here’s what happened. No sooner had they set their hearts on deliverance, when down the tubes came Pharaoh’s edict: “Make them work harder! They have too much time on their hands to think about their God. If they keep thinking about this stuff, we’ll lose them.”

A delegation went to meet with Pharaoh to complain about their long hours and the unreasonable workload. Here’s Pharaoh’s response:

Satan knows that our most valuable and non-renewable resource is TIME. The more he can fill our time up with non-God things, the less time we’ll have to spend with the Lord in our daily devotions. Also, the less time we’ll have for spiritual activities and the more likely we will be to waste or shipwreck our lives. The bigger the grip our jobs have on us, the less the Lord will get from us. Make no mistake about it: there are dark hands, you can’t see, wildly clapping for the rat-race of your life to get ‘busier and crazier.’

If you have too much time on your hands, you might put more effort into the assembly. You might help out with the prison ministry or the food bank. If you’re too idle you might start studying your Bible seriously, or plan to block out some time to help in kid’s work or Seed Sowers. If you have too many weekends off you might plan to take your family to a Bible conference. If you’re too idle you might be home more and then the chances of wrecking your marriage and losing your kids diminishes.

If every Christian asked their employer to reduce their workweek by a half a day or a full day, and used hour-for-hour those same freed up hours for spiritually-specific work, can you imagine the difference it would make now and in eternity?