What Do You Do in Your Free Time?

 

How we spend time shapes our character, our happiness, our success and our future. What do you do in your free time? How does God want us to spend our time?

A few years ago an African friend making her first trip to a Western nation visited our home. She observed my wife working in the house and preparing dinner. She was amazed to see one labor-saving device after the other: an electric stove, a large refrigerator and freezer, a microwave oven, a garbage disposal, a dishwasher, a washer and dryer, and a vacuum cleaner.

Finally, she turned to my wife in astonishment and asked, “What do you do with all your time?” Most of our friend’s day, every day, was taken up with performing by hand the tasks accomplished by our appliances. She couldn’t imagine having so much free time.

All our free time?

It’s an interesting question to consider: What do we do with all our free time?

We may not feel like it, but people today have more free time than ever before. For most of human history, people had to spend almost every waking moment providing food, clothing and shelter for themselves and their families. It is still that way in much of the world.

Yet, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Labor, Americans over the age of 15 average more than five hours of free time a day. That’s almost a third of the time we’re awake! And, according to the same report, most of that unprecedented leisure time is used for entertainment: television, surfing the Web, video games and so on.

Free time: a blessing or a curse?

The way some people use their free time gets them into trouble.

Geoffrey Chaucer, in the 14th century, is credited with being the first to say, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” The more modern expression that someone has “too much time on his hands” usually indicates he’s done or is going to do something stupid or wrong.

How does God want us to spend our time?

It’s important to carefully consider how we use our free time and on what we should spend it. Our lives are composed of time, so how we spend our time is how we spend our lives.

How does our use of free time affect us? Are there leisure activities a Christian should avoid? Does the Bible give any guidance on how we should use our free time? How does God want us to spend our time—and not spend our time? 

What entertains us, changes us

Jesus corrected the Pharisees many times for their hypocrisy—attempting to appear good on the outside while their hearts were corrupt.

He said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also” (Matthew 23:25-26).

We learn from this strong statement that what happens in our minds counts more with God than the way we appear on the outside.

Jesus also explained that desiring something illicit in our minds is a transgression of God’s law even if we don’t act on the thought: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

So it is vital to keep our minds and hearts clean and pure. This means a Christian should avoid any kind of entertainment that would cause him or her to desire to violate God’s law and way of life.

Bad company corrupts good character

In the first century, the apostle Paul corrected Christians in Corinth for, as we might say it today, “hanging with the wrong crowd.” He told them: “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’ Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:33-34, New International Version).

These Christians were spending time with people guided by wrong values and acting in wrong ways; this severely and adversely affected them. Bad examples were crowding God out of their lives, and Paul said it was shameful.

Wise Solomon warned: “Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul” (Proverbs 22:24–25). The people with whom we spend time affect us. Whether we believe it or not, we come to resemble them.

Screen time and violent video games

How sad it would be to have God say, “That’s all you accomplished with the years of life I gave you?”Today people who wouldn’t dream of consorting with drug dealers, assassins and prostitutes spend hundreds of hours simulating that kind of life in extremely realistic games, movies or books. They listen to catchy song lyrics that unconsciously imprint their minds with wrong ideas about sexuality. Even bad virtual company can corrupt good character and habits.

Almost all the young men who have committed school shootings, from Columbine to Sandy Hook, were frequent players of graphically violent video games called first-person shooters, where the players practice shooting lifelike people over and over. This doesn’t mean everyone who plays such games will actually kill, but it does indicate the games have a definite and negative psychological impact on players.

Practicing an action over and over desensitizes us to it. So it is crucial to protect our minds. We must not allow ourselves to be desensitized to the destructive behaviors of sin: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23, New Living Translation). So we must make conscious choices about what we allow to enter our minds and affect our hearts. This directly impacts the kinds of entertainment we should choose.

Two traps: sex and violence

Two of the most destructive themes in today’s entertainment are violence and misused sexuality. Films, books and electronic games are portraying ever more graphic violence. Producers are constantly pushing the envelope to find new ways to surprise and shock audiences.

Sadly, many people have come to expect violence, even to insist upon it. Horror movies portray the sadistic and senseless torture and mutilation of innocent people. Video games have players graphically killing thousands of people, often without any moral framework. A whole generation of young people is becoming desensitized to violence.

Destructive sexuality is encouraged in music videos, in increasingly graphic movies and in video games. The blatant message is that sex is not something reserved for a loving marriage, but an uncontrollable animalistic urge to be indulged whenever the desire is felt and with whomever one wants.

The tragic results are becoming more and more evident in society: broken families, children growing up in dysfunctional homes, and the increasing acceptance of shocking perversions.

Destructiveness of online pornography

Online pornography is an especially loathsome scourge in its own right. According to the Focus on the Family website, among other issues:

• Pornography is addictive, and the addiction is progressive. Once addicted, a person’s need for pornography escalates; the person grows desensitized to obscene material; and this escalation and desensitization drives many addicts to act out their fantasies on others.
• Experts believe that a pornography addiction may be harder to break than a heroin addiction.
• Pornography destroys marriages and families. Interest in online pornography strongly contributes to divorce.
• Pornography plays a significant role in sexual violence. The most common interest among serial killers is hard-core pornography.

Christians must be aware of the terrible psychological and even physical destruction caused by pornography and make a firm decision to avoid it at all costs.

How should we use our free time?

Leisure time is what we have when we’ve finished working and recuperating from work. It is our most valuable time because we can use it to improve ourselves. How we use our free time shows our priorities (see our article “Christian Priorities: Putting God First”).

God set the pattern by mandating one day of rest time each week, the Sabbath day, for us to deepen our relationship with Him, with our family and with other Christians. (See our article “How to Keep the Sabbath as a Christian.”) This shows the importance of taking time to reflect on life, to take stock and to verify that we are pursuing what is most important in life.

Redeeming the time

The Bible tells us to use our time wisely and with great care. “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). To redeem the time means to make the most of it, to invest each minute in quality activities, not junk. It means to understand that our life is composed of time and we have a limited amount of it available to us during which we have important spiritual goals to achieve.

The apostle Peter wrote that we will “give an account” to God for the way we use our lives and what we accomplish (1 Peter 4:3-6). What will we be able to tell God in that accounting? Will we have to tell Him of hours wasted in mindless and destructive entertainment, or will we be able to show character development, spiritual growth and time spent in service to Him and our fellow man?

How sad it would be to have God say, “That’s all you accomplished with the years of life I gave you?”

Guidelines and constructive free time activities ideas

The Bible explains some guidelines that can help us decide what kind of entertainment to choose and how we should use our free time.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

These qualities should guide us as we choose the ways we use our leisure time. This list would disqualify much that passes as entertainment today.

Suggestions for using our free time constructively include:

• Talking with God in prayer and letting God talk to us through the study of His Bible.
• Strengthening family ties and teaching our children important lessons and skills for life.
• Serving those in need, including widows and orphans (James 1:27).
• Reading educational and inspiring books, such as biographies and histories, and watching documentaries that help us better understand the world and life.
• Furthering our education or sharpening job skills that can help us advance our careers.
• Learning to appreciate good music and learning to play an instrument.
• Engaging in stimulating conversation with friends about weighty and worthwhile topics.
• Learning a new language.
• Enjoying God’s creation by gardening, hiking, cycling, skiing, kayaking, star gazing, playing sports, etc.

What should a Christian do?

God tells us that one of the goals of the Christian life is to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5; see “Don’t Be Ignorant of Satan’s Devices” and “How to Put on the Armor of God”). This applies to every facet of life, including the way we use our leisure time.

We are privileged to have more free time than ever before. To use our time wisely and well is to spend our lives wisely and well, and to please our Creator.

What will you do with all your free time?

Learn more in our articles “Christian Time Management” and “Christian Decision Making.”

Change Your Life This Year

 

What kind of year will this year be for you? Will it be the same as or worse than last year? Or will you make breakthrough changes that will transform your life for the better? You can choose—and receive—the help you need!

Do you consider change good or bad?

Political campaigns use the word change to evoke longing for a better world. Self-help programs tap into our deep-seated desire for a better “me.”

But when the concept of change sinks deeper into our conscious and subconscious minds, it stirs up something else.

Fear

Two-time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman recognized that. He wrote, “Change of any kind scares most people so much … they don’t allow for something new to become a possibility before their anxiety talks them out of it” (George Foreman’s Guide to Life, 2002, p. 37).

We all want things to change—for the better!

But we’ve seen enough times when things went the other way. If change brings the risk of something worse or no better, most of us naturally cling to the status quo. We’re more comfortable with the problems we know than the unknown lurking behind the door of change.

And not only that, change can be really difficult. We all have things in our lives that we wish were different and maybe even have tried to change, but we have given up and accepted them because permanent change is just so hard.

If we are to change, we need to clearly see why we need to change—and the benefits.

Why change?

It’s ungrammatical, but it’s true: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

However, most of us find there are broken things in our lives. Things that aren’t really satisfying. Maybe some of our relationships are becoming more painful than pleasant. Perhaps we are stuck in patterns of self-destructive responses and habits that we can’t seem to figure out how to escape from.

Perhaps you relate to author Charles S. Platkin’s description of his frustration with useless diets and a series of failed romantic and business relationships: “After years of research, self-reflection, self-examination, and my share of failures, I realized that many of the things occurring in my life were beginning to look familiar. I found something they had in common, that is, patterns and outcomes I had experienced before, which drove me to the same places that I didn’t want to see again” (Breaking the Pattern, 2002, pp. x-xi).

Many of our natural reactions to disappointments don’t change anything. They are unfulfilling and just further the cycle of frustration and regret. One common reaction is to look for someone to blame. But this natural response is just another trap.

As Mr. Platkin discovered after interviewing hundreds of successful people, “One of the key characteristics of all successful people is their ability to avoid the trap of blaming others for whatever failures or setbacks trip them up along the road to achievement. Blaming others means there’s nothing within your power or control to fix a problem. It means there are no choices. … No successful person would ever tolerate this kind of surrendering to the whims of others” (p. 13).

Certainly other people add to our woes. But playing the blame game doesn’t help. It just sets us up for failure.

The Eternal God created us with the capacity to change, and He will show us the way to transform our lives. If we choose to change, He will give us the help we need to break the chains of the past and prepare for a future beyond our wildest dreams!When we finally come to the point when we can no longer put up with the problems in our lives or their consequences, and when we recognize our personal responsibility, we are ready for change. At that stage, the situation may feel hopeless, but there is hope. There is Someone who wants us to change—and to succeed in life—even more than we want it ourselves.

The Eternal God created us with the capacity to change, and He will show us the way to transform our lives. If we choose to change, He will give us the help we need to break the chains of the past and prepare for a future beyond our wildest dreams!

What’s the No. 1 change God wants?

God created everything, so He knows what works and what doesn’t. He made laws that show the right way to live, and He tells us that disobeying those laws leads to the heartaches and failures that afflict humanity. He tells us that all of us have sinned against Him and brought the automatic consequences upon ourselves—and earned the ultimate penalty of death (Romans 3:23; 6:23).

But God is merciful and wants to forgive us—if we seek His forgiveness and commit to change. This change of mind—this U-turn in our lives—is called repentance. When we first come to recognize the need for this dramatic change, we may be fearful or feel overwhelmed. But it is more than worth it. It is the No. 1 change God is looking for in us, and it is the starting point for an awesome transformation. In the end, the great Creator God wants us to be His children!

How to change for the best

We begin making this change by learning about God’s beneficial laws (see our free booklet God’s 10 Commandments).

Then we must recognize where we have broken those laws and learn to abhor those sins as God does. He hates sin intensely, yet He loves us so much that He allowed His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay our death penalty for us! That should impress on our minds both the enormity of sin and the awesomeness of God’s mercy.

Repentance is not just expressing sorrow for past sins—it means committing to overcoming sin with God’s help and striving to live as Jesus Christ lived.

The apostle Peter summarized the conversion process in Acts 2:38: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The transformative gift of the Holy Spirit opens the way for even more beneficial results, including the wonderful fruit of the Spirit and eternal life as children of God! The benefits God offers those willing to change their lives are truly astounding!

Action!

Of course, just reading these words will not change your life. Change requires action! What’s the next step? Our new booklet Change Your Life! presents a concise but more-detailed look at the biblical process of conversion. It examines the vital scriptures you need to understand to turn your life around and become the person God wants you to be.

Download it now and commit to making the changes God wants from you this year and beyond. The information in the booklet is priceless—and the benefits will last forever!

 

Sidebar: Seven Laws of Successful Change

Many experts have tried to figure out the keys to success in life. Why do some people achieve so much, while so many of us just live day to day, struggling to keep our heads above water?

The simplest, yet most practical and profound, list I have discovered was compiled by Herbert W. Armstrong, one of the most successful writers and religious figures of the 20th century.

Mr. Armstrong’s “seven laws of success” are:

1.      Aim for the right goal.

2.      Educate yourself.

3.      Maintain good health.

4.      Drive yourself—put out wholehearted effort.

5.      Be resourceful.

6.      Persevere—stick to it.

7.      Have regular contact with God and ask for His guidance and continuous help.

These principles can be applied to any goal, but they are especially vital in the highest-priority spiritual goal.

This most important goal can be stated in different ways in Scripture: to repent and be converted (Acts 3:19) or to be transformed to live like Jesus Christ (Romans 12:2; Galatians 2:20). By aiming for this goal of change, we will seek what He offers us—the wonderful Kingdom of God—and live as He lives—righteously (Matthew 6:33). There can be no greater success than achieving this goal—to be a child of God inheriting the eternal Kingdom of God (Romans 8:14-17)!

 

Sidebar: 88 Percent of Resolutions Fail

At the beginning of every year, we hear of New Year’s resolutions like these on the top 10 list from 2013:

1. Lose weight.
2. Get a job.
3. Save money.
4. Be happy.
5. Fall in love.
6. Travel.
7. Take a photo every day for a year.
8. Eat, drink, learn or try something new.
9. Quit smoking.
10. Set an attainable athletic goal, like running a 5 or 10K (source: 43Things.com).

There are other resolutions that are perennial favorites:

• Drink less alcohol.
• Eat healthy food.
• Get a better education.
• Manage stress.
• Volunteer to help others (source: USA.gov).

Of course, most resolutions are soon forgotten. A survey of more than 3,000 people by British psychologist Richard Wiseman found that 88 percent of all resolutions end in failure.

This highlights the difficulty of changing habits and achieving goals, but it doesn’t mean setting goals is not important. Written goals with detailed, step-by-step plans and checkpoints are much more likely to be achieved. And remember, God wants you to succeed with positive changes to your life. So ask Him in prayer to give you an extra measure of strength to succeed!

 

Sidebar: Biblical Bucket List?

The 2007 movie The Bucket List cemented in the popular consciousness making lists of things to do before you die. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman’s skydiving, drag racing and trips to exotic places are typical of many bucket lists, but some people’s life goals are more unusual.

Consider these from the book What Do You Want to Do Before You Die? (Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, Duncan Penn and Jonnie Penn, 2012):

• I want to longboard down an active volcano.
• I want to kayak in a bay of bioluminescent plankton.
• I want to do a handstand at the South Pole so I can say I held up the world.

Many of the other goals in the book remind me of the excuse of hopeless people: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (Isaiah 22:13; 1 Corinthians 15:32).

But what would a biblical bucket list look like?

• “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4).
• Do God’s will and support His work. “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work’” (John 4:34).
• Give blessings to others (Genesis 27:4; 48:1-21; 49:1-33).
• “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Abraham “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10)—a goal he will soon achieve, thousands of years after he died!

That’s what makes a biblical bucket list different. Like Abraham, God’s people know that what we do before we die is important—because it prepares us for a wonderful eternity when accomplishment will never stop!

What’s on your eternity list?

“Go and Sin No More”

 

Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery, but He instructed her, and, by extension, all who have had their sins forgiven, to sin no more.

The famous story of the woman caught in adultery is found in John 8:1-11. Some of the Jewish leaders brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.

These leaders constantly followed Jesus throughout His ministry, testing Him with trick questions. Their objective was to try to cause Him to say something that they could use to accuse Him of false teachings (verse 6).

Jesus stooped down and began to write on the ground. We don’t know what He wrote, but He did eventually respond to their pointed questions by saying, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (verse 7). He apparently pricked their consciences, for the accusers departed one by one until only Jesus and the accused woman were left.

Now the law did say that if one was an adulterer, he or she was to be put to death (Leviticus 20:10). Jesus Christ did not say or do anything that indicated that the law against adultery was no longer in force. Having the authority to forgive sin (compare Matthew 9:6), He forgave her instead of condemning her to death for it. He added a very important admonition: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

In today’s world, many are confused about the role the law of God plays in the life of a Christian. Oftentimes, people believe that once the blood of Christ’s sacrifice cleanses them from sin (which it does—1 John 1:7) they are no longer subject to the law. They seem to think they can continue to live as they had before being forgiven.

But that is not the case. “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin” (1 John 2:1). It is God’s will that Christians not sin, that is, that they not break His 10 Commandments.

Forgiveness requires a change of life

Consider an analogy that involves forgiveness and obedience in a nonspiritual situation. Think of an older teenager who does something that is both illegal and contrary to the values his parents have taught him. For the sake of example, let’s say he attends a party where drugs are being sold and used. There is a police raid, and this teenager is arrested. His father has to bail him out of jail. Because of the circumstances, the teenager escapes legal prosecution; but he still faces the disappointment, hurt and shame he has brought upon his family.

He realizes the depth of his mistake, having been shaken by the experience of being arrested and jailed. He tearfully apologizes to his parents, asking for their forgiveness. They tell him they love him and forgive him, and everyone embraces.

Does the forgiveness of his parents mean that the teenager is free from any obligation to live by their values in the future? Would it be perfectly acceptable for the young person to return to a drug party the next night? No, it would not. Returning at any time to the actions for which he said he was sorry and for which he asked forgiveness, would deeply hurt his parents. It would betray them; it would make a mockery of his repentance and of their forgiveness.

We are not free from obeying the laws of God

Regrettably, a false doctrinal thread—one that defies the common sense that this example illustrates—has worked its way into modern Christianity. That idea is that the forgiveness of Christ for our past sins frees us from all obligations to obey the laws of God in the future. In real-life situations, we would never expect this. Yet many embrace the idea that our Heavenly Father requires nothing of us after forgiving us for breaking His values—His commandments.

God’s commandments are laws of the highest order, much higher than any local or national laws. However, many people believe that being forgiven for breaking the holy laws that required the death of Christ frees them to live however they choose.

They overlook the plain statement in Romans, in the context of an explanation that Christ paid the death penalty in our place, that “in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” (Romans 3:25, emphasis added).

In other words, just as the parents forgave their teenage son in the example above, God offers forgiveness of our past sins. But, as was also the case for the teenager, Christians do not have a license to continue sinning after being forgiven.

What about sins a believer commits in the future?

Some teach a “fuzzy theology” that those who “accept Christ’s sacrifice” will not sin any more—not because they willfully obey God’s law, but because their nature has changed. The idea that the forgiven will simply no longer want to sin is at the heart of this inaccurate teaching.

Both New Testament examples and modern practical experience show that this idea is utterly wrong. Believers forgiven of their past sins still possess the tendency to commit sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). In the last half of Romans 7, the apostle Paul acknowledged the power of sin in his life years after conversion.

All people—including believers who have had their sins forgiven through repentance, the acceptance of Christ’s shed blood and baptism—still live in a world saturated with the lure of sin. They remain under attack by the chief spiritual enemy, Satan, who wanders about seeking which of them he might consume (1 Peter 5:8).

Do believers sin again after they have been forgiven for their past sins at baptism? Yes, they do. Christ’s sacrifice still remains powerful enough to forgive sins in the future.

Thinking that obedience to God’s law is not required shows contempt for the incredibly high price that was paid to obtain our pardon for the penalty of our past sins—the crucifixion of the Son of God.But here is the catch: Sins that are not repented of are not forgiven. When a believer sins, he or she must privately repent of those sins to God in prayer. He or she must humbly and sincerely ask for His forgiveness; and God, our loving Father, promises to forgive upon genuine repentance (1 John 1:9).

Do not show contempt for God’s forgiveness

Obedience is required of believers. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).

Doing otherwise would show contempt for the forgiveness our Father has generously bestowed! It also would show contempt for the values of His family, expressed in the 10 Commandments. Likewise, thinking that obedience to God’s law is not required shows contempt for the incredibly high price that was paid to obtain our pardon for the penalty of our past sins—the crucifixion of the Son of God.

Notice Hebrews 2:1-3: “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.”

Thinking that we are under no obligation to obey the law of God is one way to “neglect” our salvation, for that way of thinking would certainly lead us to sin again. (Sin is breaking the law of God, according to 1 John 3:4.)

God’s laws are positive and beneficial—they’re like guardrails or painted lines on a highway. They show the way to live that keeps us out of the ditch! They show the way to live that enables us to love God and our fellow humans (from parents, to spouses, to neighbors). They show the way to live that helps us avoid hurting ourselves as well as others. They show the only workable way to peaceful homes, peaceful communities and peaceful nations.

Yes, we are required to obey God’s laws; we are required to do what is good for us!

Please read the article “What Are the 10 Commandments?” Then read the series of articles on New Testament verses used to argue against the legal standing of the 10 Commandments, beginning with “Law and Grace: Jesus vs. Paul?”

Be sure to read the verses cited in these articles, and allow God’s Word to speak for itself on this critical issue. Because so much has been said and written contrary to what the Bible says, it will take time and patience to learn the truth of this critical matter. Our library of articles in the “Change” section will also help.