Weekly Thought > Personal Growth > Barclay's Prayer - Part 3 (In our leisure, pleasure)
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Barclay's Prayer - Part 3 (In our leisure, pleasure)
Lord, grant us 1) in our work, satisfaction 2) in our leisure, pleasure 3) in our study, wisdom and 4) in our love, loyalty.
In Our Leisure, Pleasure:
Our leisure many times determines whether we are going to be mediocre or successful. A Christian should use leisure constructively to build and not to abuse. Weekend carousal is out. Volunteer work for many is in.
Leisure gives us time for reading, studying, traveling and ministering. We are to invest our leisure, not spend it. A good hobby provides relaxation �½ a bit of spice for life. Remember recreation should be re-creation. Our pleasures should restore our energy and create pleasant memories.
For many, it is not. Like the nurse sitting in the adjoining seat from Miami to Chicago. I asked her if she was coming home or going home. She said that she was returning from a party weekend in the islands. Her eyes looked like two red traffic lights. She was going to have to go home to her job and recuperate from her leisure. This, certainly, isn't the Christian way.
One friend uses his vacation time to go work on the Amazon Outreach in which the medical boat goes up and down the river ministering to the natives. First, in their health needs and then in their spiritual. Another family takes a good part of the summertime to go to the poorest areas of the world to serve. Often students go in a group to build homes and churches for communities.
Service to others is a pleasure unknown to the selfish.
This week think about: 1) How do I define leisure? 2) When do I feel God's pleasure? 3) What allows me to re-create?
