Did you make any New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of the year? It’s May now and I wonder if you did make any resolutions, do you even remember them? And if you remember them, did you keep them?

I wouldn’t want to know how many resolutions I’ve made that just petered out after awhile. I really meant to keep them; I started off with a strong commitment and a big push, but somehow the passion just faded with time. You too?

Recently a friend gave me a book by a business woman named Patty Azzarello. The book is called Rise, and she says it gives three practical steps for advancing your career, standing out as a leader, and liking your life. Well, that’s a pretty tall order for a book to deliver, but even though it’s not written from a biblical perspective, some of her thoughts are helpful. So, today I want to talk about Ruthless Priorities, which she defines as overachieving where it counts.

Years ago God taught me that I can’t do everything; I can’t even do everything I’m capable of doing or would like to do. I have to make choices and those choices determine whether what I do counts in the Kingdom or not. Truly, in order to do God’s will, we need ruthless priorities; priorities that are clearly established in our minds and to which we ruthlessly hold. Otherwise, we will be pulled in a hundred different directions, and accomplish very little that truly counts for eternity. Without some ruthless priorities in our lives, we’ll continue to make sincere resolutions that don’t last very long!

One of the chapters in this book is entitled “Be Less Busy,” which doesn’t sound like the way to advance your career, does it? But truthfully, we have to begin by getting rid of our preconceived idea that busyness means productivity. When I first began my career years ago, I noticed that many people in the company worked very long hours and took great pride in it. They seemed to think that putting in lots of extra hours meant they were demonstrating a higher commitment to the job; they were doing a better job than the rest of us. Patty says in her book, “Many people feel that if they are not fully consumed with work and always appearing to be super busy, people will question their commitment and their value.” (p.15)

I truly believe in working hard, but equally important is working smart. Getting great results with less work is the sign of a very smart person. As Patty puts it, “Just because you can work tirelessly doesn’t mean you should.” (p.17)

Do you have a ruthless priority for your life that you will slow down; that you will truly “be still and know that God is God”? There’s an African proverb that says, “Hurry, hurry has no blessing,” and truly it doesn’t. Slowing down so we have time to know God has to be our highest priority, and when it is, you’ll get more done in less time, and you won’t be so frayed around the edges.

I certainly agree that we should overachieve in some areas; we should go extra miles and do more than we have to do. But are we overachieving where it counts?

Maybe, like me, you have a “to do” list that you use to make sure you do what you need to do. But perhaps we need a “not to do” list as well, to remind us that we cannot be all things to all people, we are not super-people, God has not called us to burn out, and therefore some things will have to be left undone if we have ruthless priorities.

The dictionary says that ruthless means without pity or compassion; merciless; heartless. Well, we certainly don’t want to be ruthless people, but we need to establish ruthless priorities for our lives. That means that we are merciless about saying no to the truly unimportant things which clamor for our time and attention. We are determined not to be sidetracked by the tyranny of the urgent which keeps us from overachieving where it counts.

Do you remember the famous quote from Charlie Brown? “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.” Well, sometimes life seems that way, doesn’t it? As Christians we are to love the world, and we do things to help mankind all over the world. But what about the people, the individuals, you have to work with everyday? They can be a lot more difficult to love.

That’s because we all have annoying habits that can start to grate on people’s nerves, and we’ve been looking at some of the annoying bad habits of coworkers this week. For example, suppose you work with someone who is always in crisis mode and frequently asks you to “do them a favor” and bail them out. But the reason they’re in crisis mode so often is because they procrastinate and put everything off until crunch time. Are you supposed to continue to go the extra mile and “do them a favor,” as they ask?

In Matthew 5 Jesus exhorts us to turn the other cheek and go the extra-mile. There’s no question that Christians are supposed to do more than they have to do. So, on occasion when your coworker needs an extra pair of hands to get a job done, you should be willing to do that. But I don’t believe Jesus intended for us to go extra mile after extra mile. That would lead us to becoming enablers, making it possible for others to shirk their own responsibilities, and that is neither right for us nor for the other person.

So, with that crisis-mode coworker, you might say, “I’ll help you this time, but in the future, you can avoid this last-minute crunch by . . .” and then explain how it can be avoided, making it clear that you won’t be available to help with every crisis they have. Again, these words need to be spoken in love, from an attitude of helpfulness, not annoyance.

You know, so often it’s the way you say things that makes all the difference, and you could help this person break a bad habit of procrastination by combining a willingness to help with a little softly-given advice. Who knows; they might even listen and learn.

Remember, no one is in your life by accident, not even the annoying coworker. And we are called not only to love mankind, but to love the individual who can be annoying!

(Please click here if you would like to download the entire devotional for this week.)

What is the most annoying habit of a coworker that you’ve had to deal with on your job? Well, that’s the way life is sometimes, right? So how should a Christian respond to these annoyances? We’ve looked at several annoying habits already. Now, here’s another one:

It’s the coworker who interrupts you continually, sometimes for work-related issues, sometimes not. But the interruptions are often unnecessary, and they definitely impact your productivity—as well as annoy you.

There’s no doubt that one of our major time wasters is interruptions. Every time we start and stop what we’re doing, we lose time. So, you need to think of creative ways to eliminate these unnecessary interruptions.

First, determine if you’re doing something to encourage the interruptions. For example, when they walk by your desk or office, don’t look up and give eye contact, which can invite a trivial interruption. And if that candy dish on your desk is too inviting, you may need to remove it.

Secondly, for necessary interruptions with work-related questions, it might be helpful to establish a daily time for interaction. You might suggest that the two of you get together first thing each morning to go over the day’s agenda. Frankly, managers can be the worst interrupters, and you could even suggest to your manager that an established daily meeting could save both of you lots of time—just to set the agenda and go over questions for the day.

Or you may have to become a bit more assertive, and simply say to the habitual interrupter, “You know, I just don’t have time to chat right now. Can we talk later?” That’s much nicer than showing annoyance through body language or harsh words.

Obviously, this is not a major issue. It’s just an annoyance. But these little things can start to add up and before you know it, you have a major issue on your hands. So, think of a positive, pleasant approach to try to change that annoying habit, but don’t let it cause you to respond poorly.

Paul wrote to the Colossians: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). In responding to annoying people, we want to make this our objective—to be gracious and kind.

Annoying bad habits of coworkers can start to drive you crazy! I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. These are not major issues—just little things that can become real stumbling blocks to good working relationships. We need to know the best way to respond to a coworker with an annoying habit, and more importantly, make certain we get rid of any of our own annoying habits.

So, here’s the third annoying habit: The coworker who tends to gripe and complain a great deal. This can be terribly annoying and if you’re not careful, they can bring you right down to their level and you’ll find yourself griping and complaining more than you should.

One negative person can poison the atmosphere where you work. It only takes one. If you happen to work with that one person, you must first learn how to tune them out and not allow their negative talk to infiltrate your own mind. Then remember that a person’s attitude is always their choice, and we don’t have the power to change anyone else’s attitude. So, if your coworker chooses to gripe and complain a great deal, your best way to deal with it is to respond in positive ways. Do it nicely, kindly, but firmly—don’t be afraid to be positive in the presence of a person who is negative.

And of course, pray for that person. Underneath that negative exterior is something else that is causing the problem. You may never know exactly what that is; it could be baggage from childhood. But you can still pray that God will help you to respond in kindness, to have sympathy for that person, to show them mercy and grace even when you don’t want to.

It is in these small issues of life that we have the greatest opportunity to demonstrate God’s love. Maybe not in words or by quoting scripture, but simply by remaining joyful and peaceful even when dealing with an annoying negative coworker.

Have you ever thought about your own tendency to be negative? Years ago I finally began to pay attention to my own negative attitude, and realized I was far more negative than I thought I was. I heard myself saying lots of negative junk in any given day, and I began to monitor my own attitude. It’s a very good habit to form—to just make sure you haven’t caught the negative disease yourself.

Do you work with someone who just can’t ever seem to get to work on time? Someone who is habitually late is not committing a great offense. This is simply an annoying bad habit. But then, that’s what we’re talking about this week, annoying bad habits of coworkers and how we should respond to them.

I find that many who are guilty of habitual lateness frequently want to justify it by saying that they work late to make up for it, or they have a very long commute, and that may be true. But the facts are, if your company has a certain start time, everyone should be there on time consistently. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.

This is a management issue. If it’s important for people to be on time, management must set the priorities, communicate them clearly, and hold people accountable. There would have to be some kind of negative consequence for the person who will not change that annoying habit.

However, if you’re not this person’s manager, there’s not a whole lot you can do about this annoying habit. One thing you don’t want to do is make snide remarks about it or communicate your annoyance with body language or harsh words. Unfortunately, that happens too often where people don’t confront the real issue and instead display their displeasure in other ineffective and unkind ways.

If a coworker’s habitual lateness is having a direct negative impact on your ability to get your job done, that might be an indication that it needs to be addressed. First, try to kindly explain to the coworker the need you have for them to be on time, and see if that might work. But remember, unless you’re the manager, you don’t have the authority to demand anything from that person.

Isn’t it interesting how something so small as this annoying habit can so easily turn into a real issue between two people and eventually lead to other, more major problems. That’s because we dwell on these little things, allow them to occupy too much thought time, and develop an attitude pretty quickly.

If you are powerless to either change or address this annoying habit of a coworker, then it’s time to let it go. Colossians 3:13 tells us to “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  Just let it go—it won’t kill you!

No doubt you have worked with or for someone who had some annoying habits. I thought it would be a good idea to look at some of these, ask how we should respond to such a coworker, and most importantly, make certain we are not guilty of annoying habits ourselves.

So, let’s consider annoying habit number one: You work with a person who makes daily calls to their mate or partner, and since you work in an open setting, you can’t help but hear the conversation. Depending on how they are getting along on any particular day, you may hear a nasty conversation with anger and accusations, or you may hear what sounds like sweet murmurings or baby talk.

Obviously, if you hold a supervisory position over this person, it should be addressed directly with clear instructions that those kinds of conversations should be on personal time and equipment, not on company time. However, if you are not this person’s manager or supervisor, you may be able to bring this to your coworker’s attention in such a way that they will see the benefit of changing that annoying habit.

Proverbs 17:27 says, “The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.” Your words would need to be carefully chosen, delivered kindly, and done with the right motivation.

For example, you might find the right moment—a private moment—to say something like, “You probably are not aware that your conversations with your mate can be heard by other people. I thought I’d let you know, because I know if it were me, I wouldn’t want others to listen in to my daily personal conversations. You might want to reserve those calls for times when you’re alone.”

There’s a lesson for all of us to learn in this, and that is, to use our working time to work, not to rob our employer of the time when we are paid to work with elongated personal conversations, whether they’re overheard by others or not.

As Christians in the workplace, these little annoying habits can do damage to our testimony for Jesus Christ, so we should make sure we’re not guilty of these.

Let’s briefly review the first three biblical principles to help us deal with a job we hate:

First, we must give up our "rights" to have a job we love and give God permission to keep us in that job if he has good purposes for us there.

Second, we must change employers and start working for Jesus, not for people. And that includes to stop working just for our own selfish reasons, such as money, advancement or power.

Third, we need an eternal perspective to remember that God will reward us for work well done if we do it as unto him. Even that hum-drum job, when done to please the Lord, will be recognized and rewarded by our heavenly Father. So, we need to work for God's rewards, not for the recognition of people.

Then, step four in being content in a job you hate is to ask God what he has to teach you through this job. Have you gone to God and said, "Lord, I'm in a job I hate and I can't get out, at least not right now. Why am I here? What are you trying to teach me or do through me in this job?"

You remember Joseph, sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers and treated unfairly and cruelly by his captors, wrongly imprisoned for two years for doing the right thing. Then God delivered him from that prison and he became second in command to the Pharaoh.

Joseph said of his bad experience that his brothers meant harm to him when they sold him into slavery, but God meant it for good. Joseph allowed God to turn a terrible experience into a blessing. But please note that God was able to turn it into a blessing because Joseph was willing to let him.

God may have you in that job you hate because he has a blessing there for you, but because of your attitude, he can't work that blessing for you yet. If Joseph had gotten bitter or remained angry or been rebellious, he would not have been able to interpret the Pharaoh's dream and he would have just rotted in that prison.

I spent three years in a miserable job at one point, and for the first year I rebelled and complained and felt sorry for myself. With that attitude, God couldn't do anything for me. When I finally realized that God had me there for a purpose and I wasn't going to get out of it until I learned those lessons, then so many good things started to happen.

First, the difficult job became much easier to handle when I abandoned my self-focused attitude and asked God to work his purpose for me in that job I hated. Going to work wasn't nearly as difficult after that.

Then, God began to use me in the lives of some of my coworkers, and I was able to be a witness for the Lord there, even to that difficult boss. And I gained some business experience, which eventually became very instrumental in my ability to go out on my own and become self-employed. And that allowed me to start this radio ministry many years ago. So, God had great purposes for me in that job which I couldn't even imagine at the time, but now I can see how he was working good for me right in that job I hated.

Are you rotting in your miserable job because you haven't given God permission to use it in your life for good? Believe me, there are miracles waiting for you in that job you hate, if you will in humility make up your mind to work for God and seek his reward, and look for the good that God wants to do for you and through you right where you are.

You'll know contentment even in a miserable job if you have that attitude. It's the attitude that Jesus had when he was willing to leave heaven and come to earth to die for us. Surely it was a job he didn't relish, but he knew God would work redemption through it, and so he submitted to the good that God wanted to do by sending him to a job he did not enjoy.

Let this same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, Paul wrote, and if you have his mind,

(as presented by Lisa Bishop)

If you want unwavering confidence in life, it matters who and what you place your confidence in. As a follower of Jesus, we need to take inventory of the ways we pursue assurance, and how we misplace our confidence in things other than him.

What is a fail proof method to grow in unwavering confidence? Immersing yourself in the Word of God so that you are reminded of the character of God and his promises to you.

When you remember who God is, your confidence will increase. I know it can be hard to remain steadfast in our confidence in the Lord. Life circumstances come, we are caught off guard and our confidence can be like a teeter totter. One minute it is high, the next minute it is low. But as we mature in our faith, we level out and we learn that no matter our circumstances, God can be trusted.

“In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge” (Proverbs 14:26, ESV).

When we are instructed to fear the Lord the word fear means to show honor, reverence, and a sense of awe towards God. And in Proverbs 14:26 the fear of the Lord, means an awe of God that moves us from self-confidence and towards strong confidence in his love and greatness.

As his child, God will always provide himself as a refuge for you. This means when life is hard and you are tempted to despair, be discouraged or doubt God, he is, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 46:1, your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

While life may throw you curveballs and loss and chaos may ensue at the most surprising times, you serve a God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is not surprised by the things that life throws your way, He sees you. He knows, he cares, he is with you. “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5b, NLT).

What is one step you will take in building your unwavering confidence in God? Maybe it is journaling so that you can reflect back on the ways that you saw God working in your life. Maybe it is reciting the names and attributes of God so that you remember his character. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 62:8, “Trust [confidently] in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”

(Click here to download the message for the entire week.)

(as presented by Lisa Bishop)

In Psalm 16:7-9 the Psalmist declares: “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure.” You can hear the Psalmist’s unwavering confidence in receiving the counsel and instruction of the Lord. He knows God will guide him!

And notice the reason that the Psalmist is so confident in receiving godly wisdom, why he is not shaken and his flesh dwells secure. The reason he does not waver is because he has set the Lord always before him. And when he sets the Lord before him, when he puts God first and seeks him first, the Psalmist’s heart is glad and his whole being rejoices.

I love how God is so straight forward. How he makes his promises so clear in his Word and the benefits when we obey. James 1:5 instructs us when it says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” Where are you relying on your own wisdom when God is inviting you to ask for godly counsel? Where are you putting your confidence in human instruction and not divine guidance?

Maybe you are in the midst of a career transition and up until now you have tried to figure out the next steps on your own. Perhaps you are in a financial crisis or your marriage is in ruin and you are seeking the counsel of friends before putting God first and asking him to instruct you.

If you are a follower of Jesus that means that you received the Holy Spirit the moment you put your confidence in and received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And Jesus says that his Holy Spirit is your counselor, your guide, your helper, your wisdom. Bring your current circumstance before the Lord, put him first. Resist seeking human advice before seeking the counsel of God. Watch out for ways you misplace your confidence and redirect your trust to Jesus.

Ask him to help you. He is waiting to give to you generously.

(as presented by Lisa Bishop)

Have you ever tried to figure something out, relying on your own knowledge and perception only to be frustrated and maybe a little discouraged?

A very dear friend of mine, Mercy, lives in Zambia. She and I met five years ago when she was in the United States. We quickly became friends even though we are separated by over 8300 miles. Thanks to technology we keep in touch.

Last year when I spent time in Zambia I was able to see a project that Mercy is working on. After being in an abusive marriage and losing a niece to suicide because of spousal abuse, the Lord gave her a vision to build a safehouse for abused women and children. Mercy was pastoring full time when the Lord instructed her to quit her job and sell everything. As Mercy tells the story, it did not make sense to her so she delayed two years until finally she could no longer ignore God’s call.

Mercy said yes when the Lord gave her this incredible God-sized vision. She had no clue how the funds would be raised to buy a plot of land in the bush and to build and staff the safehouse, but Mercy stepped out in faith. Her confidence in God propelled her forward. It is quite amazing to witness.

Being the planner that I am and wanting to feel some measure of control, I marvel at how Mercy has completely surrendered and trusted the Lord to provide what she needs to fulfill God’s vision. Just the other day I asked her how things are going with the safehouse. She said, “I just take each day and trust. The Lord started it and he will finish it. I am trusting him to finish and accomplish what he began.”

If that isn’t unwavering confidence in the Lord I don’t know what is!

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.“

Jeremiah 17:7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.”

Where is your confidence and trust? Are you in the midst of a circumstance where you are relying on your own understanding to reach a solution? Maybe a relational breakdown, work conflict or a job loss? Are you in a situation where you are trying to lean on your own understanding?

Ask God what he wants you to do at this moment. Ask Jesus to help you put your confidence in him and to submit your ways to him…and he will make your paths straight.