There is an old saying that “Idle hands are the tools of the devil,” and in a small way I can agree with this statement, but only in part, for these tools that we speak of here, our actions, are most generally at the disposal of our own decision making, our own free will. What we do with this life that God has blessed each of us with has for the most part been left completely up to our own discretion. The knowledge of the consequences of these actions within the framework of the eternal has been placed within the soul of everyone, He has put eternity in the human heart, (Eccl.3:11) there are none with an excuse (Romans 1:20).
The statement of idle hands infers that those who believe this to be true will then find something to do with their time, and I am suggesting in this letter to you that these actions are not always the most beneficial ones to perform, busy hands can also be the tool of the devil, and sometimes even more so. People who are simply looking for something to do rarely seek the will of God in these matters, or His Word, but instead are focused on menial, generally mind numbing tasks that are meant simply to kill some time, as it were, until the next required task must be accomplished. How many individuals do you know that will, after the evening chores are accomplished, and perhaps a short devotional is read, will then either sit on the sofa and stare at the television, or perhaps curl up with what they consider a good book, but not the Good Book. These are simply trying to entertain themselves until their eyes begin to droop, for the next required task will be alerted to them at the sound of the alarm clock in the morning.
Is there anything wrong with this form of entertainment, well, that depends on the heart of the individual, the emotional context that they apply to their chosen worldly entertainment adventures and of course the frequency of them. It is similar to the man that enjoys a small alcoholic drink occasionally, and the one who finishes off the bottle every night, idle hands are rarely used by our adversary, ones that are busy at the wrong tasks are much more profitable to him.
Thus it is with many who profess Christ as Lord today, the tithe of their life is all that they are willing to give to Him, and that amount may be a high number. There are places to go, people to see and things to do, few know these days how to sit quietly and listen to the Lord, (Psalms 46:10) much fewer even enter their closets to seek His will for their lives. The excuse of life being too rushed, and the calls of the world’s urgency are starting to wear a little thin, and in this area, there is an old saying that does hold true, “Time waits for no man.” Your time will run out, and our Lord will require a strict account of how His servants spent that time, “I don’t know” is not going to be an acceptable answer, for you alone know why you are doing what you are doing, and why you are not doing what you should be doing.
Idle hands are of no value to the Lord when they are used only for “busy” work, for the things that are meant to only pass the time until our use of time is required of us. Satan loves busy hands, “make work” if you will, those things that are not necessarily displeasing to the Lord, but are in and of themselves no use to the Kingdom of God. I have been employed in the past by individuals who, when you were waiting for the next task at hand to arrive, wanted you to pick-up a broom and sweep, even if the floor was clean, anything to look busy, “make work.” Let’s just say that the wisdom that I attempted to impart to these individuals was not received well. Our Lord looks upon these instances, these “busy hands” scenarios in much the same way, He realizes that we need a break occasionally, the work that He requires from us can be quite demanding at times, but break times from the work are not meant to last longer than the work itself. Many of these make work actions are meant only to pass the time, and usually they are associated within the construct of the world, and time my friends is in a very limited supply for each and every one of us.
Here is the time in this letter that you get to do a little soul searching, as it were, what percentage of time are you spending in service to Christ? I don’t mean just your church attendance record, but your actual actions and thoughts, in the fulness of your life since the day that you opened the door of your heart to Christ, how much has been devoted to Him? If you are growing in the grace and knowledge of God, (2 Peter 3:18) then you will see this as an ever-climbing line on the time scale of your life, with of course peaks and valleys, but nevertheless one that is continuously climbing. If you have difficulty finding your Bible on Sunday morning you may see this graph as more of a flat line, you know, like the one on the monitor that dead bodies have. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17), and busy hands can be very adept at helping you to stay dead.
My beautiful wife has almost four dozen Scripture memory verses in her head, word for word and their place in the Word of God, I cannot even begin to comprehend the ability to do such a thing, she is an incredible gift from God, but she also is very aware that these will serve little purpose if they are not shared. They are admirable, but even a monumental task such as this can turn into “make work,” something to pass the time until my time is required of me. Granted, to hide the Word of God in our hearts is a blessing for us indeed, but you are not the only one here on the planet, no light is meant to be hidden, (Matt. 5:14) your time is almost up, it may not seem like it now, but we are as the dew in the morning, (James 4:17) and there are few things sadder than an older person repeating to themselves and any that will listen “I wish I would have.” Man’s purpose in this short life is to glorify God and obey His commandments, (Eccl. 12:13) without doing so you will find no joy, oh, you might locate some temporary happiness, but it will fade away, with time.
Busy hands, when not being used for the Lord can at times be an effective tool of Satan, be always careful and mindful of what you do with them, what you spend your time on, you alone will be held accountable in this area when it is your time to stand before the Lord.
