What did you do last week?

When the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, asked federal employees that question in an email, the response from many was apoplectic. Many quit their jobs in protest. Others organized protests outside government buildings. News outlets reporting on the story called Musk’s email a form of harassment. National Public Radio (npr) said it was a form of “psychological warfare.”

A simple email request like this exposed just how corrupt and inefficient so much of the federal government has become.

How would you respond to an email like that? Are you producing? Are you growing and overcoming?

Instead of relying on a superior to check your progress (Gal. 4:18), try implementing a personal, weekly routine of providing God with a spiritual progress report.

Seven is the number of perfection and it appears often throughout the Bible. There are seven Holy Days; the seven Days of Unleavened Bread; seven days for the Feast of Tabernacles; throughout the Book of Leviticus seven is mentioned as the number of days for cleansing; God instituted the seven-day week to picture His seven-thousand-year plan for mankind (2 Peter 3:8).

God can really accomplish a lot in one week! The world can change rapidly in the span of a week—consider how decades of policies in Europe were overturned in the span of just a couple days following one single Oval Office meeting at the end of February. When there is a strong desire to make a change, it can happen fast!

How much are you accomplishing in a week? Approach your big problems with the goal of conquering that very day! Don’t look at a big problem and think this could take months or years to fix. With that mindset you may never accomplish anything! Of course, don’t become discouraged over setbacks, keep moving forward, but aim to make rapid and drastic changes each week.

Perhaps you could pick one area you’d like to overcome, or one good habit you know you need to improve on and ask God to help you accomplish that goal. Then, each Sabbath check in with God in prayer and give Him a progress report. It’s also something that can help make your Sabbath prayers more special. In some cases, it could also be a good topic for family discussion. How well did you do? What do you need to do better? What area do you need more help in. God loves to hear us ask Him for help!

God wants us to conquer problems as speedily as possible (Ecclesiastes 8:10). Events in the world and in God’s Work are moving faster and faster. The Work is involved in more activities than it probably ever has been before. Are you keeping up? Are you matching that urgency?

In The New Throne of David book, Gerald Flurry writes: “… Do we realize who we are? Do we realize what God is using us to do? We have a wonderful message of hope, and God has now put the throne right in our midst! This is phenomenal and mind-staggering! God has upped the ante considerably. He expects more of us. He believes we can do more. He believes with everybody pitching in, we are going to excel in every way—but we are going to do it on our knees, as Mr. Armstrong did before the prayer rock. That is the only way!”

What is your weekly progress report like? The weeks are flying by! Take time to reflect and go to God each Sabbath to check in with a spiritual progress report!