Learn About God
God is the greatest. Isaiah 45:5-6. God tells us He is the one and only God, but how does He prove this? What has God done that “none else” can do? Verses 18, 21. How great is God compared to man? Isaiah 40:12. How much water can you cup in your hands? God measured Earth’s oceans in the palm of His hand! Next to creation, God proves His greatness through prophecy, but who told God what would happen in the future? Verses 13-14. God asks rhetorical questions to show that His magnificence is unquestionable. Does God tire from all this physical and mental work? Verse 28. No matter how big the task, God can do it. No matter the depth of a question, God understands it.
A Productive Life
Be creative! How often have you complained to your parents that there is nothing to do? How long has God been alive? Isaiah 57:15. And yet, even with His eternal lifespan, God has never been bored! God isn’t bored because He is always creating something! Psalm 90:1‑2, 4. By considering the vast creation of God from the intricacies of a butterfly to the grandeur of the galaxies, we can glimpse God’s infinite creative capacity. Romans 1:19-20. Having nothing to do is plain laziness. Learn and perfect something new: a skill, a hobby, a sport, an instrument, a craft. Don’t give up just because it takes time. The planning process for this universe took God eons and eons of time, and yet we are thankful God went through with it! Ephesians 3:9. Don’t be bored; be creative—like God!
Establish your routine. 1 Corinthians 14:40. God demands that we be orderly. If you feel unproductive, maybe you need to establish a routine. Look to Jesus Christ’s example of a successful routine. 1 John 2:6. How did Christ start His day? Mark 1:35. He put His relationship with His Father first and began with prayer to Him. Did Jesus also make sure that He worked hard during the day, going about His Father’s business? John 9:4. Was Jesus balanced with His routine, making sure to plan time to attend social functions and spend time with friends? John 2:1-2. Although the Bible doesn’t mention His bedtime, we know that after a hard day’s routine, Jesus would have gone to bed early enough to ensure He could wake up early to pray. Christ was productive, not just busy. By building the same routine that Jesus lived, you too can finish the course set by God for you! John 19:30.
Christian Conduct
Stop talking nonsense! Ephesians 5:3-4. Foolish talking is basically “silly talk.” In these verses, God describes certain habits of people who won’t be in the Kingdom of God. Verse 5. It doesn’t say that we can’t engage in small talk or share the less important details of our lives, but God is very concerned that we aren’t discussing silly things, especially about inappropriate topics. God cares about every word that comes out of our mouths. Matthew 12:36-37. Try hard to purify your speech with upbuilding words, and your wholesome tongue will be as a tree of life! Proverbs 15:4.
Call The Sabbath A Delight.
Do you wish for a day you can be free of homework, chores and physical work and just relax? Does God tell us to stop all our work on a certain day? Exodus 20:10. If you look at the Sabbath as a day you can’t watch tv, you can’t play outside or you can’t wear comfortable clothes, stop! Instead of looking at the Sabbath as a burden (1 John 5:3), look at it as a day you can give your mind a rest from homework, and enjoy the fruit of your chores from the past week, a time you can spend with your friends and family. But is the Sabbath a day for us to do whatever we want as long as it’s not work? Isaiah 58:13. God wants us to redirect our energies on the Sabbath to do things that draw us closer to Him, and as a result bring about blessings in our lives. Here is God’s promise to those who call the Sabbath a delight: Verse 14.
Personalities
Achan: How one man’s sin destroyed his family! Joshua 7:1-6. The second city God told Israel to destroy once it entered the Promised Land was Ai. Yet instead of routing the city, the Israelites lost the battle, and some of them were killed. Initially, Joshua didn’t know the reason for this shocking failure, but God revealed it to him. Verses 10-12. Israel was cursed and men had died because one man had committed a sin against God. Who took of the accursed thing? Verses 16-21. What was the consequence of Achan’s lust for wealth? Verses 24-26. It can be easy to think that our sins only affect us, but the truth is that our sins never affect just us. Ecclesiastes 9:18. Achan’s sin not only led to the deaths of his fellow Israelites, but also took his life as well as the lives of his family. Instead of being a shame to your family and bringing curses upon them, you can have the opposite effect. Obedience will cause your mother and father to rejoice and be blessed! Proverbs 23:24-25.