“Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” Psalm 144:4
God has blessed my wife and me with three wonderful children. Our kids grew up like most modern children – they enjoy electronic games, movies, and television. However, as parents, we were concerned about them spending too much time watching TV and playing video games. Consequently, we limited the amount of time they could spend on the computer and in front of the TV.
We also encouraged family board games. We spent many evenings at the kitchen table playing Monopoly, Scrabble, Battleship, Trivial Pursuit, Connect Four, Sorry, and Uno.
One time, my daughter Abby and I were playing checkers when I made a silly mistake. “Overs,” I said. “No way!” Abby replied. I tried again, “But I didn’t mean to do that.” “That’s too bad,” she said as she took one of her checkers, jumped two of mine, and landed on my side of the board. She grinned and said, “King me.”
“Let me have a do-over. I’m your dad. Don’t you love me?” I asked. “Of course, I love you,” she said. “But once you take your hand off the checker, you can’t go back.”
Reason didn’t work. Love didn’t work. I thought maybe theology would. So I tried one last time: “But the devil made me do it.” Abby replied, “You shouldn’t listen to the devil. He doesn’t know a thing about checkers.”
It seems the devil doesn’t know much about the Christian life either.
“You need your sleep more than you need quiet time with God,” the devil whispers. “Just roll over and go back to sleep. God will understand.”
And we do.
“You’ve had a tough day,” he says on Wednesday afternoon. “Just skip church tonight.”
And we stay home.
“You just need to relax. You work all week. Take some time for yourself. Forget about worship, praising Jesus, or hearing God’s Word. Just enjoy your Sunday,” he says at the start of the weekend.
And we don’t go to church.
“God is too good to let someone as nice as your neighbor go to hell. He’ll send someone else to talk to them about the Lord. Just keep things friendly and social. You might offend your neighbors if you share Jesus with them,” he says.
And we never tell our neighbor about Jesus. Later at the funeral, we wonder if anyone ever told our friend about the Lord.
The point is, day after day, we let the devil guide our choices as we race against time. We follow his advice, and only realize too late that we made the wrong moves. That’s when we cry, “Overs! I need a do-over!” But time keeps moving and answers, “No way.”
The Bible says life is like a shadow that quickly passes. I don’t know about you, but I want to make the most of my days for Jesus.
Don’t play games with the devil. You won’t win.
Start working for Jesus before it’s too late.
