We all know that feeling: waiting for the "perfect time" before we act. But life doesn't work that way. Opportunities slip by while we hesitate and before long, the moment's passed altogether.

Taking the first step into something new is daunting. Equally, taking the thousandth step in something that's been dragging on for an eternity is exhausting. Wherever you are on your journey, procrastination seems alluring indeed.

Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. (ESV)

Ahh, it's too windy, better not sow. Look at those storm clouds. Not a good time to harvest.

Do you see? Wherever you are on the journey, procrastination is always an option. And yet, the faster you do the hard things you want to avoid, the faster you'll receive the good things you actually want.

Yes, there are risks and uncertainties along the way, but just as you don't know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you don't know the work of God who makes everything.

God is on this journey with you, so stop procrastinating. Start sowing.

That's His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

What if the life you’re trying to control is the very thing you need to let go of?

We live in a world addicted to grand gestures. Social media loves it — the dramatic donation, the public apology, the grand act of kindness. But behind the spotlight, it's the small, quiet choices that matter most. The truth is: obedience doesn't trend, it transforms.

So, imagine that a young man saves for months to buy his mother a beautiful gift. But when he gives it to her, she smiles and says, 'What I really wanted was for you to spend time with me.' He gave her something costly, but he missed the one thing her heart longed for. Isn't that how we can be with God sometimes?"

1 Samuel 15:22 But Samuel answered, "Which pleases the LORD more: burnt offerings and sacrifices or obeying his commands? It is better to obey the LORD than to offer sacrifices to him. It is better to listen to him than to offer the fat from rams."

Samuel spoke those words to King Saul of Israel after he'd disobeyed God. Well, Saul had partially obeyed, but in the end partial obedience is still disobedience.

It's so easy to go through the motions, sing songs, lift your hands in worship, drop cash into the offering … and yet, for our hearts still not to be truly "all in". And how can you tell if you're all in? By what you do, by how you live your life.

Sacrifices cost you things. Obedience costs you your life.

It is better to obey the LORD than to offer sacrifices to him. It is better to listen to him than to offer the fat from rams.

In truth, obedience is the highest form of worship.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

You don't have to look very far to figure out that anger is something that's hitting society in plague proportions. Everybody seems to be angry. Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly.

Every now and then we all get angry, we just do. It's a natural human emotion, in fact, you read a bit about God in His word, the Bible, and you discover God gets angry. Jesus became so angry he made a whip and drove the money changers and the traders out of His Father's house, the Temple of God in Jerusalem.

So anger is natural, it happens when one person wrongs another person and yet, if we let anger get the better of us, if we live constantly in anger, it's pretty ugly.

I have a dear friend and his particular weakness is anger. In fact, I have to say, I used to be a very angry person and you know something, if we're angry all the time we just can't enjoy life. In fact, angry people can't easily have relationships with other people.

Angry people, well they tend to be very lonely people because no-one trusts them. People don't know when they're going to be on the end of that next angry outburst. Anger may well be justified, although often it's not, but if that's where we live all the time, it's really very ugly.

Today, as always, anger is a particularly deadly sin.

Berni: What do you reckon Keith?

Keith: It is Berni; nobody wants to be around an angry person. They're very threatening and we try and avoid being around them and you would think the leader personality would be the one that would have the anger, the most anger.

Berni: Yeah, you would, I mean because the leader is a sort of personality that's driving towards a conclusion and would get frustrated with people who don't come along.

Keith: That's right but it's outside anger right, so they voice it to anybody or anything that gets in their way because they want to get rid of them. But the anger we're talking about today, in terms of the 7 deadly sins, is an internal anger, right. It's given to the, for instance, the prophet.

The prophet is likely to be angry because they can see justice or they can see what's fair or what's right, have integrity and things aren't correct. They're very black and white people, the prophet.

Berni: Now explain a prophet to me. By the way Keith Henry's joining me this week; I forgot to tell people that you were joining me Keith. Keith's a bit of a guru, he's done a bit of, quite a bit of study haven't you, about personality types and particular strengths and weaknesses, that's your gig isn't it?

Keith: It is, for about 10 years, studied that and talk on that but getting back to the prophet here Berni, the prophet is a particular personality type, next door to the leader I call them because they are managers, they can manage.

Berni: Right.

Keith: Not the leader who breaks down the wall and leads the team out, they're actually the manager who can manage with integrity, right and that's the important thing; a prophet has integrity.

Berni: A sort of gyroscope of right and wrong.

Keith: Exactly, there's only one right way, there's only one wrong way therefore there's no shades of grey.

Berni: I relate to that a little bit.

Keith: Well it's next door to you.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: Right, in personality but when we talk about anger here, both the prophet and the leader come from will, they're strong willed people. But the will and the anger for the leader goes outward, against anything, the anger we're talking about here, the deadly sin, is internal in the prophet.

Berni: It's a seething anger.

Keith: It is and can build resentment.

Berni: Yeah that would be very destructive, wouldn't it?

Keith: It can be very destructive. Not only for them but also, if they start letting it out to ... you know "you're not doing it right, you must do it this way" type of attitude; well i

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You don't have to look far to see it—people are desperate for something real. We're drowning in headlines, chasing dopamine hits on our screens, and yet lying awake at night with an ache in our souls.

The false promise of joy is what leads so many people to go looking for it in all the wrong places … which goes a long way to explaining our obsession with our smartphones, hoping for yet another dopamine hit that ultimately falls so far short of real joy.

So, let's take a different tack here today, you and I:

1 Peter 1:8 You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You can't see him now, but you believe in him. You are filled with a wonderful and heavenly joy that cannot be explained.

The struggles of those to whom Peter was writing were real, painful, and unjust—ostracism, slander, threats, and possibly the beginnings of state hostility. They weren't being fed to the lions just yet. This was about the daily grinding cost of living faithfully in a hostile culture.

And into that, Peter speaks of a joy that their enemies could never steal. "Though you haven't seen Him, you love Him … you're filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy".

Not some fragile joy of comfort or approval that perishes like figs left in the sun. No, it's the fruit of the Spirit ripened in the heat of trial, rooted in Christ.

The world's joy fades quickly. But the Spirit's joy? It endures through suffering. Because of Jesus, it shines brightest in the darkness. Let your joy be complete. Jesus.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

When a relationship becomes the center of your identity, it can feel like everything rises and falls with it. This story shows what happens when that place is given back to God—and how true freedom begins.

It seems in this fast changing world, that laziness couldn't possibly be a problem anymore. But certain people are truly prone to this sin. But they are and that's why it is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly today.

We all have patches in life where we need to take our foot off the pedal, just a bit. That's natural, we can't keep running at a million miles an hour, otherwise we'd burn out. Then we're no good to ourselves or anyone else for that matter.

So yes, we all need to take a breather and make sure that we have plenty of rest and recreation. But sometimes, sometimes that kind of slips over the line and too much R and R, well we have a name for that. It's called laziness. Sloth in the old fashioned language. I like the sound of that word, 'sloth'. It's pretty confronting.

And as we're going to see on the program today, some people are more prone to laziness than others. And laziness, well it's like a disease or a cancer. Laziness turns us into couch potatoes. Instead of cooking, we watch TV shows about cooking. Instead of travelling, we watch shows about travelling. Instead of gardening, we watch other people doing gardening.

Instead of having a life, we watch other people having a life and kind of kid ourselves that we have a life too. But here's the paradox; laziness doesn't revive us like rest should. Laziness robs us. It drains us. It drains the life out of us. Whether in yesteryear when we called it sloth or today we call it laziness, doesn't matter what we call it, it robs us of life and it's deadly.

Berni: Well Keith, welcome to the program again today. Tell us about this "sloth" thing, didn't you love that word?

Keith: Yes.

Berni: They used to call it sloth, laziness.

Keith: That's right. Well we're all lazy up to a point. As you said, we have to rest. But laziness, in this term doesn't just mean lying on the couch watching the TV, eating chocolates, right. You can be very busy but you can be lazy.

Berni: Explain that.

Keith: Well, laziness in this term is more talking about putting off what you should do. You could be something else right, I should go and mow the lawn but I won't, I'll actually do something else. You know, there's priorities in life, there's big things that we should do and laziness is more talking about putting those things off 'til tomorrow.

Berni: So you never get around to it?

Keith: Yeah and tomorrow comes and you might put it off until the next day.

Berni: Okay. So why, why are some people more prone to that than others?

Keith: In personality, the one that Romans 12 calls "a teacher" is the one most prone to laziness because their priority is really to relate to people. They're the real relationship people. That's why they're called teachers. It doesn't mean they have to teach or they're the best teachers. But they really relate to spending time with people.

Therefore, if they have a priority of having to go to work or having to wash the car or do something and somebody calls up and says, "Lets go for a drink or a cup of tea", they're more likely to take the cup of tea option rather than what they should do.

Berni: So it's kind of like they're lazy about the mundane things in life that aren't the relationship orientated things which they enjoy.

Keith: Exactly. They're called the "procrastinators" and that's a really good description of them.

Berni: Oh, procrastinators drive me nuts (Both laugh)

Keith: You're the action person, the leader.

Berni: All you procrastinators out there watch out. (Said with humour)

Keith: But the funny part about it, you come from will Berni, the leader but they also come from will. Well ... they're wills first. But their will is to get along with people.

Berni: Yep.

Keith: So they will put off other things and not do what they should do. Now

Achieving lasting change in your life ain't easy. You want to ditch some bad habit and replace it with a good one, but what a struggle that can be. Yep, producing lasting fruit in your life - good fruit - is quite the challenge!

Fruit's a great way to understand the good things we want to cultivate in our lives. Because we know, inherently, that fruit is good. I mean, strawberries, raspberries, and figs are wonderful, aren't they – beautiful, sweet, bursting with promise.

And yet, their beauty is short-lived. Strawberries begin to spoil within a day, raspberries collapse into mould almost overnight, and figs last scarcely longer. Their sweetness fades as quickly as it appears.

It's the same with the joy we so long for - fleeting, fragile, gone before you know it. But here, the Apostle Paul speaks of a different kind of fruit … the sort that lasts.

Galatians 5:22-23 … the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person's life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That's quite the list, and prominent amongst it is the fruit of joy, because frankly, unless you're enjoying them, new habits are impossible to sustain, wouldn't you agree?

Like strawberries, raspberries and figs, every item on that list is inherently good. But would you please notice with me that the fruit Paul speaks of isn't fruit that we grow out of our own strength, but the fruit that the Spirit produces in our lives.

And right up there, amidst all the good fruit that God wants to cultivate in your life … is joy. Complete, abundant, eternal joy.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.