Christian Stewardship Ministries

Part Three of Five

Do you know how to establish greater discipline in your life? It is much simpler to understand than to do.

To build your confidence in yourself, in your ability to do or achieve or accomplish what God wants from you, you must first see self-confidence as consistent with God’s plan for your life. If God wants you to do it, then of course you can. (Phil 4:13)

Role of Self-Discipline

Next, you must recognize the role that self-discipline plays in the process. Most of us have areas of our lives that are more disciplined than others. Some may be good at disciplining themselves in health-related things, like diet, exercise and rest. Others may be more disciplined in building relationships. Some of us are more task-oriented. Others are more disciplined with money matters. And some cannot point to any consistent areas of discipline.

Lack of discipline will undermine confidence in self. When you’re not disciplined in a particular area, what you’re really saying to yourself is that even if you think you know God’s will, you’re not willing to take the steps to enable you to do it. And if there are very many areas where you are being consciously disobedient to God, your view of yourself will be seriously damaged. You’re going to be less confident of God’s willingness and desire to accomplish things through you.

Becoming More Disciplined

So you say, “That’s great, Ken. I know I should be more disciplined, but how can I be? What are some practical steps I can take to help me to become more disciplined?” My first suggestion is to choose an area that will give you a great sense of accomplishment. Not necessarily the most difficult area, but one that will motivate you to take another step once you’ve succeeded.

Maybe you want to focus on using your time wisely. How about your time alone with God each day? Or your getting-up time? Or your bedtime? Maybe you need greater discipline with money. Like developing a budget. Or tracking your spending. Or resisting impulse purchases.

Once you’ve selected the area for increasing discipline in, ask God for help every day. Tell your family and friends about your commitment. Build up enthusiasm for your effort. Give yourself a deadline. Don’t make the commitment for the rest of your life. Make it for a month, or perhaps even a week. Be realistic. Build it up a step at a time.

Make Yourself Accountable

And finally, make yourself accountable to someone (Prov 15:22). Report your success or failure daily or weekly or periodically. It helps to know that someone else knows and cares. If you fail, they can help you analyze why, and to try it again with a more realistic approach.

Don’t give up, just aim lower. You can always raise your sights later. Remember, failure is not trying. Success is continuing to try. The difference between the two is often just being realistic. Holding yourself accountable can provide the insight you need.

Start small and work your way up. You have the rest of your life to get there.

Next Time

Next time we’ll talk about moving forward in the process-establishing a plan that reflects God’s plan.

Part 2 of 5

Have you ever focused on the relationship between self-confidence and self-discipline? Let me share with you an example of the struggle I faced in my own life.

As I began to deal with my lack of self-confidence, I became increasingly aware of God’s promise in Philippians 4:13 that “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” As I began to focus on and internalize that promise, I began to believe that I could do anything that God wanted me to do. My confidence in my ability to do what God wanted me to do grew because I began to see Him doing it through me.

Testing God’s Promise

I began to experiment with little things. I would identify something that I knew He wanted me to do, but which I had had trouble developing the discipline to do. In other words, I knew I could do it, and I knew God wanted me to do it. It was just a matter of deciding seriously to do it. It was a matter of being disciplined!

In my law practice, I had never tried to specialize. When I came along, most lawyers were expected to do a wide variety of things. But before I retired, the age of specialization was upon us. In law school and during the early years of law practice, I was taught to generalize. All of a sudden, survival meant I needed to specialize.

My realization of that fact of life coincided with my commitment to Christ. I didn’t really know what I wanted my specialty to be, but I knew God wanted me to focus more carefully on what cases to accept and which ones to refer.

Seeking Insight

The first step was to establish enough discipline to understand what He was saying. I carved out one hour each morning, after my quiet time, to reflect on what my area of specialization would be. I asked Him to give me the discipline to plan. As I began to get insight, I slowly transitioned into using that hour to read, research and develop greater knowledge of that area.

The more disciplined I became, the more specialized I became. After a couple years, I had much more confidence in myself. I knew I was becoming better prepared and more effective in several specialized areas. I could more confidently turn away cases that I was not sure I could handle, knowing I had expertise in other areas. The one reinforced the other. I saw myself more and more as a success. My early investment in discipline had paid off.

With this discovery in hand, I began to look at some larger aspects of life. Where else did I lack confidence and what could I do about it? That’s when things really began to change.

Next Time

Next time we’ll discuss how to establish greater discipline when it is needed for greater confidence.

Part 1 of 5

Do you suffer from a lack of confidence? Do you doubt your ability to do what you want to do or feel you should do? Join me as we explore ways to increase your confidence in your own abilities.

God Supplies Strength

How can we gain the confidence we need to do the things God wants us to do? Philippians 4:13 tells us, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

The “him,” is, of course, the Lord. But the “I” is you and me. If God wants us to do something, achieve something or accomplish something, the Bible says He will give us the ability to do, or achieve or accomplish it. All we have to do is identify it as something He wants and rely on Him to show us how to do it.

Going It Alone

For 16 years I practiced law in Northern Virginia. To do that, I went to law school, passed the Virginia Bar Exam, worked for a law firm, served as a Senior Assistant County Attorney and had my own general practice. During those years, I gained experience in doing many different things. But there were other things I didn’t learn to do as well as I wished or wanted to. When a complicated or a high-profile case came my way that I wanted or needed to take, but which required expertise or experience that I lacked, I often experienced great anxiety.

For most of those 16 years, I had no personal relationship with God. I went to church on Sunday, and I considered myself a Christian, but I had no concept of God in my daily life except when I needed to escape something beyond my ability to handle. Then I would pray and hope that God would extricate me from that particular dilemma. I had no idea I could identify things that God wanted me to do, or achieve or accomplish, and have the confidence of knowing that I could be successful at those things.

Fearing Failure

As a result, I spent as much time worrying about what I couldn’t do as I spent doing what I knew I could do. As time passed, I had trouble even believing that I could do the things I very much wanted to do. I would set goals and then risk sabotaging my path toward achieving them because I feared I would fail.

I knew the old adage “better is he who tried and failed than he who never tried at all.” But sometimes even when I tried, I had so little confidence in myself that I destined myself to failure.

Then I became a Christian. I discovered the truth of 1 John 4:4 that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” And I began to discover how to have confidence in myself.

Next Time

Join me next time as we begin to discover how to build “self” confidence.

I would like to wrap up our discussion of procrastination by sharing with you just what it has meant to me to be free of the anxiety that procrastination produces.

For the first 20 years of my adult life, I either procrastinated on the details of my life, or I wasted many, many hours trying to do things before it was the right time to do them. I was never able to strike a good balance, and as a result, I spent much of those 20 years in frustration.

Increasing Efficiency

Once I began to understand how to overcome the procrastination of the past and avoid the procrastination of the future, I began to look forward to things coming my way. Instead of fearing taking on commitments, I began to anticipate learning new ways to get more done. I began to enjoy becoming better organized because I could accomplish more rather than just ending up with more to do.

Part of my challenge is that I have a poor memory. It was once a very good memory, but over the years, I suspect due in large part to my drinking, my memory had deteriorated badly. I couldn’t trust myself to remember to do things when they needed to be done.

Using “To Do” Lists

When I discovered the value of making “to do” lists, I began to understand what had happened. Since I couldn’t remember to do things, I didn’t complete tasks on time. Then, when I did think of the things I had failed to do, I wanted to avoid them. So I formed a habit of not wanting to remember things. And I became very good at that.

When I finally discovered how to compensate for my bad memory, I learned how to combat procrastination. Gradually I caught up with all the undone things in my life, and finally one day, I was current—for perhaps the first time in my life!

Getting Ahead

Then I got just a little bit ahead, and then I learned how to stay just a little bit ahead. And before long, I realized that I could be just a little bit ahead for the rest of my life. And I’ve spent the last 30 years enjoying being just a little bit ahead of everything that needs to be done.

If you will learn the secret of defeating procrastination, you can be among the top 5% of the population in terms of success. Better yet, you can join the elect in the Kingdom of God who place top value on their obedience to Him. Will you join me in discovering the freedom that accompanies being obedient to God by being just a little bit ahead for the rest of your life?

Do you suffer from lack of confidence in yourself? Join me next time as we begin a new series that should enable you to learn how to overcome your doubt in your own abilities.

As we saw last week, the first step toward overcoming procrastination is to list everything in your life that you’re behind in. The next step is to decide what to do and when to do it.

There are several ways to approach this. You might do the hardest thing first, on the theory that you’ll find it easier to do everything else. You might do the easiest thing first, on the theory that you just need to get started somewhere. I prefer to do the thing that will relieve the most pressure, so that I can experience freedom from anxiety and become motivated to do the next thing.

Prioritize

However you approach it, after you’ve made your procrastination list, code it so that you know all of the top priorities. It might help to give your most important areas an “A,” and the least important areas a “C.” Then make everything else a “B.” Go back over your “A’s” and give the most important “A’s” a 1, the least important “A’s” a 3, and all the others a 2. If you want, you can do the same things with your “B” and “C” priorities.

Now look at all your A-1 areas of procrastination. Depending on how many there are, you can develop a plan for doing all of them. Some of them can be done relatively quickly, and it might really encourage you to get them done and out of the way. Other items will require you to break them down into smaller projects. The key with each one is to take the first step and decide what the next step is and when you will take it.

As you move through your list, you will gain more and more confidence and encouragement. You’ll discover that many of those mountains are really just molehills. Others really aren’t as high a priority as you thought, and some you’ll decide don’t need to be done at all.

Begin!

Let’s say you’re feeling a lot of pressure to clean the garage so you can get the cars back in. As you sit down to plan when and how to organize this project, you realize that cleaning the garage really isn’t the priority. Before you do that, you need to install a shed in the back yard. So instead of spinning your wheels trying to clean the garage, when you have nowhere to put everything, you establish a plan for purchasing a prefab shed to set up in the back yard, after which you can clean the garage.

Remember, God has a plan for every area of our lives, especially those areas that are defeating us. All we have to do is discover His plan. Will you begin today? Make a list and prioritize it. Decide what you will do first and do it.

Next time I will cover some of the advantages of overcoming procrastination.

The first step in the battle to overcome procrastination is to identify those areas in your life affected by it. I suggest that you devote a specific notebook or pad of paper to the process.

Identify Key Areas

Begin by making a list of key areas of your life. For instance, you might select categories such as God, Self, Family, Work and Ministry. Other possible categories might include relationships, finances and future ambitions. Don’t be too concerned about the categories. They are simply a tool to help you remember what you’ve left undone.

List Things Undone

Next, list all the things you’ve left undone in these key areas of your life. For example, in the God area, have you carved out time for the things He wants you to do that will enable you to develop your relationship with Him? Do you read the Bible regularly and spend time daily in prayer and meditation?

In the area of Self, do you have an exercise program? Are you eating as you should? Do you have time to relax, to do things to recharge your mental and physical batteries?

In the area of Family (even if you’re single), what have you left undone around your apartment or house? Have you developed a personal or family budget? Do you have a system for paying bills and filing receipts and other paperwork? Are you current on correspondence? Do you have a plan for maintaining your home and yard? What about your automobile(s)? If you’re married, have you set aside quality time to spend with your spouse? If you have children, do you have sufficient quality time with them?

In the area of your Work, what projects remain unfinished? What are your boss’ high priorities that you’ve not found time for? If you’re a student, do you have a plan for completing your assignments during the semester or quarter? Do you know what hours you should be devoting to study, to term papers and projects, to reading? If you’re a homemaker, are your closets organized? Is your kitchen orderly? Is there a place for everything and everything in its place? If you home school your children, do you have a workable system to develop your lesson plans in a timely fashion?

How about Ministry responsibilities? Church. Community. Charities. Have you made any commitments in those areas that you haven’t fulfilled?

Once you’ve identified everything in your life that you’re behind in, you’ve taken the first step toward accomplishing them. For many of us, the pain of acknowledging some of those areas is so intense that we can’t even put them on a list. If that is the case with you, ask God to help you begin to be honest with yourself. Just because you don’t know how to do them, or don’t feel you have the time or motivation, there is no reason not to list them.

Next time we’ll talk about how to get everything done. Get ready to live a joyful and fulfilled life as you begin to catch up. It’s a great feeling and it just gets better and better.

This week I’d like to share with you how to overcome procrastination.

One morning during my quiet time at my desk in my law office, I noticed a file cabinet across the room. It had been there for years, and I knew that it was full of things that were terribly disorganized. In fact, several different secretaries over a few years had each filed my papers in this cabinet, each with her own system, or with no system at all.

Tackling the File Cabinet

I gradually realized that God actually intended me to do something about this file cabinet. I got up from my desk, walked over to it and opened the top drawer. It was just as bad as I had thought it would be. I emptied that top drawer, which was so over laden it was actually bent, onto the floor. I then did the same with each of the other four drawers. I spent most of that entire day sorting, organizing, throwing things away and filing things in other areas of my office. When I finished, that file cabinet had been transformed from a cram-packed, overloaded, disorganized pile of paper to a model of efficiency. There was now plenty of space for future filing, and the drawers were no longer bending under the weight.

I returned to my desk so fulfilled! I was ready to bask in the delight of having defeated the procrastination that filing cabinet represented when I noticed the top of my desk. It was just as bad on the outside as that file cabinet had been on the inside.

Taking on the Desk

Slowly, painfully, I realized that God wanted me to organize my desk. Eventually I did. I put everything on and in that desk on the floor. Then I threw things away, put things elsewhere and put back in my desk only those things that really belonged there.

There was a stack of legal files that had been on that desk for as long as five years. They’d even survived a move from one office to another and were still stuck in the same location. When I finally opened those files, there was nothing left to be done but close them out. They had been the source of great pain because of procrastination for years, but all I needed to do was close them out, a five minute exercise!

Experiencing Freedom

Once my desk was organized, I began to experience the freedom that accompanies not procrastinating. I became so excited about conquering other areas of procrastination that I began making a list and catching up on my life. I took out a legal pad, and over the next several days made a list of everything in my life that remained undone. I prioritized the list and began checking things off, one project at a time.

Next time we’ll talk about how you can begin the same process and start experiencing the same freedom that I’ve now enjoyed for over 30 years.

Where It All Started

This week we begin a new topic…procrastination.

I can’t think of a more painful area. I was behind on virtually everything of importance in my life when God supernaturally rescued me from the hell on earth that procrastination represented. When I learned how to overcome it, the Lord began what has become Christian Stewardship Ministries.

Procrastination Begins Early

It all started when I was 16 years old. I was the Speaker’s Page in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C, the most prestigious position in all of Pagedom. One evening I went out with some schoolmates and got drunk. That was a turning point for me and after that night, I began a lifestyle that lasted for 20 years. I began to leave more and more things undone. Except during my senior year at The Bolles School, a military prep school in Jacksonville, Florida, I had never had a plan for doing anything before it had to be done. If you wait until the last minute, it’s often too late to complete a task, and seldom is anything done at the last minute done as well as it could have been done earlier.

When I went to college at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, I quickly abandoned the discipline I had learned in prep school and reverted to the lack of discipline that had begun that fateful evening in Washington. Instead of seeking early morning classes, and getting a jump on the day, I sought late morning and afternoon classes. I later bragged about never studying and always cramming for exams, though at the time that approach was very painful. I looked for shortcuts, for ways to do assignments at the last minute and still survive.

God’s Mercy

God surely had His hand on me during college and law school. He had things to accomplish through me that surpassed my self-destructive lifestyle. Yet I sank so low spiritually that I even debated His very existence.

After I began practicing law, I found myself in a profession that majors in procrastination. The entire system of statutory deadlines reflects the commitment to procrastination that our legal system represents. I know many good lawyers who do not procrastinate, but I was not one of them.

The worst part was that I didn’t even realize I had a problem. Sure, I knew I drank too much. I even described myself as a functional alcoholic. But I didn’t understand how procrastination was destroying my life or how to deal with it.

Next time I’ll share with you how I identified and defeated procrastination and how you can, too.

Is there ever a time when we should permit interruptions or not even attempt to control them? When? How? This week let’s take a look at the other side of the coin. When should we permit interruptions and how should we handle them.

God’s Plan

My philosophy of life generally is that God has a plan, and within that plan there are a few things that are subject to my influence and control. However, most of the things included within God’s plan for my life are not subject to my control.

I don’t believe God wants me to worry about what I can’t do anything about. There is plenty to keep me busy within what I can control, and if I waste time and energy worrying about those things I can’t affect, it’s actually a form of disobedience to God (Phil 4:6-7).

As best I can, I plan each day in advance. I know what I must do, what I’d like to do and what there is to do if there is time left over. I’m confident that my daily plan is what God wants it to be because I spend sufficient time with Him daily for Him to let me know of any serious miscalculations.

My Daily Plan vs. God’s

But I have absolutely no idea what each day will actually look like or how it will unfold. The plan may be exactly the plan God wants me to have, but His plan can be very different. As often as not, the way God informs me of the differences between my plan and His are by what we call interruptions.

As we grow in knowledge and grace, we learn how to distinguish between the interruptions God wants us to resist and those which reflect His real plan for us. That is called discernment. The basic rule is that if you can’t think of a way to effectively resist an interruption and still provide a good witness, then permit it to the point that you can resist it in Godly fashion.

A baby’s cry is generally the beginning of a permissible interruption. So is the wail of a siren — the closer it gets, the more permissible it becomes. The dog’s bark at midnight, the screech of tires immediately behind you. The stark silence in the bank as everyone in front of you raises their hands above their heads. Yes, there are many interruptions that must be permitted, and we all learn sooner or later to accept the inevitable.

The question is: Is this interruption God’s will for me? If so, you’d better say yes. But if not, do you know how to say no, in love?

Next Week
Next week I will share how my life began a 20-year slide on the skids of alcohol and procrastination.

If you suffer from procrastination, you’ll want to be sure to read next week’s message on God’s Plan For Your Life.

Part Nine of Ten

For the past several weeks, we’ve been considering how to avoid interruptions. This week let’s take a look at the first cousin to interruptions — distractions.

Many times the reason we’re interrupted is because we want to be. I remember when I used to wait for opportunities to avoid doing what I was supposed to be doing. Almost any excuse was good enough, and only the fear of not having enough time to finish something kept me from permitting a distraction.

Resist Distractions

So, the first step in avoiding distractions is to decide in advance that you’re not looking for one, and if one comes your way, you’ll resist it.

Many people are prone to distraction because they lack focus. They are not consciously intending to be distracted, but they can’t seem to concentrate on what they’re supposed to be doing, and so they are constantly drifting off into other things.

While this lack of focus or concentration may require medical or psychological help, sometimes it’s just lack of discipline. If that is the problem, here are some suggestions.

Reducing Temptation

1. Keep your environment as interruption-free as possible.

2. Eliminate electronic distractions: radios, televisions, IPODs and the like.

3. Avoid surfing the internet .

4. Eliminate the use of Instant Messaging

5. Turn off your cell phone (believe it or not, this is not only possible, but it works).

6. Turn off the sound that notifies you when emails have arrived in your in-box.

7. Resist chatting.

8. Resist texting.

Increasing Productivity

1. Maintain an organized and clutter-free desk or work area.

2. Prepare a written plan for how you’re supposed to spend your time.

3. Keep track of your time and how you spend it.

4. Work from an outline.

5. When reading, use a straight edge.

6. Plan periodic breaks to get break your concentration — but don’t forget to come back to work when it’s time.

7. Use a digital kitchen timer to break your concentration (perhaps hourly) so you can refocus on the big picture.

8. Get plenty of sleep at night.

9. Establish the habit of doing the same thing at the same time each day.

If you suspect a medical problem, have your eyes and ears examined. Consult a Christian psychologist who can look at your situation from a spiritual perspective.

Ask God for Help

When all else fails, try God Ask Him to give you supernatural insight into what is causing you to fall prey to distractions. Are there areas of disobedience in your life that you need to address? Is it something that only He can reveal to you?

You need not simply accept that you are easily distracted. View this as a problem to be dealt with and continue to seek the solution. In the meantime, learn to compensate for it by concentrating on personal planning and organization.

Next Week

Should we always try to avoid interruptions? How do we know when to permit them? Next week we’ll look at another perspective on interruptions.