The words “downsizing,” “cutting back,” “reducing workforce,” “trimming budget,” “scaling down,” etc., etc. are increasingly common in our nation today and are hitting too close to home for many of us. Whether we’ve been directly impacted by such workforce “adjustments,” each of us has certainly felt the instability in the economy and the inflation in costs of goods and services.
All of us are probably cutting back in some areas and some of us are cutting back in all areas. Cutting coupons for the grocery store, cutting corners on utility usage, cutting back on trips in the car, cutting, cutting, cutting.
With our concentration so determinately fixed on reducing in all areas of our lives by using less and doing with less, we can easily make it a mindset that touches every aspect of our lives, just out of habit. Unfortunately, that can include spiritually.
Some Christians have cut back on their prayer time. With everything running so expensive these days, maybe prayer is just out of our price range? Right? No, not so, never! Our Father bids us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), and “in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let [our] requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). Let us never cut back on our prayer time, lest that cost us!
Some Christians have downsized on their Bible reading time. Someone coined the phrase, “Time is money.” So, if I don’t have much money then I don’t have much time and I should be careful how much time I give to Bible reading? Right? No, not so, never! Our Master instructs us “desire the pure milk of the word” (1 Pet. 2:2), “read” it (Eph. 3:4), “meditate” on it (1 Tim. 4:15) and “study” it (2 Tim. 2:15). Let us never downsize on our Bible reading time, lest that cost us!
Some Christians have scaled down on their worship time. It takes gas to get there. (But if I’ve got enough gas to go out with my friends or run down to the store for a sale, how can I use gas as an “excuse” not to worship?) It takes several hours of my time in driving and sitting; once a week or even once every two weeks should be enough. (Is this a “result” of a scaling-down mentality or a reflection of a heart? Is the privilege of worshiping God something that I need to measure by a clock or bargain how often I go?) Let us never selfishly scale down on our worship time, lest that cost us!
We are living in a time when “costs” are so dominant in our thinking. May we carefully “count the cost,” but particularly what certain decisions will cost us in eternity.