This is
a slightly expanded version of an article that originally appeared in
Grace Magazine
The plot of Thomas Hardy’s Far
from the madding crowd turns partly on an idle Sunday afternoon
when the heroine Bathsheba Everdene, not knowing what to do with
herself, engages in a foolish piece of teasing. There seems to be a
number of good Christian people today who do not know what to do with
themselves on the Lord’s Day. So here is a series of suggestions as
to how to use such time wisely. Even if you are involved in meetings
or you take a nap there will still be time to do one or two things.
It would certainly be impossible to do all of them. Of course, they
can be done on any day but for most of us, if they are not done on a
Sunday they never will be done. If you have no time for any of them
then perhaps you need to take a fresh look at how you organise your
week. May they be a help to you, or at the very least set you
thinking.
1 Have an extended time of family worship
2
Listen to a sermon or something similar on mp3, downloaded podcast,
CD, etc, eg a Sunday sermon you have missed or an old one you
have forgotten
3 Read the Bible, perhaps a whole book or section
at one sitting
4 Go over (or catch up on) your weekday Bible
readings or prepare for your daily Bible readings in the week ahead,
eg reading introductory materials
5 Do some Scripture memory work,
eg using Navigator aids
6 Compose a picture or a poem
arising out of some biblical theme that is on your mind
7 Spend
some time in prayer with others or alone. Concentrate on a particular
area, eg mission or the family
8 Revise your prayer list
9 Sing
some hymns with others, with your own accompaniment, a CD/Youtube/Spotify or on your own
10 Learn a new
hymn or teach one to others
11 Listen to some hymns on your Youtube/Spotify, etc
12 Have a Bible quiz or work through Bible puzzles with any children around
13 Read a good Christian biography or church history,
eg one of the volumes in Nick Needham’s 2000 Years of Christ’s
Power or Arnold Dallimore on George Whitefield
14
Read a good commentary or doctrinal book. Perhaps you could read
through something like Matthew Henry’s Commentary or Grudem or
Reymond’s Systematic Theology Sunday by Sunday. How about
working through the 1689 Confession?
15 Read a Christian
classic with others (use a children’s edition if youngsters are
involved) eg Pilgrim s Progress
16 Read from a good
Christian coffee-table book such as a book of maps and charts or a
pictorial encyclopaedia
17 Read a good Christian magazine
18
Read something from a good Christian website downloaded earlier in
the week
19 Talk about the things of God with other Christians
indoors or out
20 Share your testimony with someone or listen to
theirs - again or for the first time
21 Discuss the sermon you
have heard or share it with someone who has not. How much can you
remember?
22 With children, discuss the Sunday School lesson or
children’s address. Help them with memory work or catechise them.
Even work through one for yourself, eg The Shorter Catechism
or the Baptist versions of Keach or Spurgeon. This can be done while
out walking
23 Visit someone who is in hospital or sick at home
24
Check that all is well with your neighbour next door, especially if
they are elderly
25 Show hospitality to someone - a stranger or
someone who would otherwise be on their own
26 Engage formally in
self-examination using questions for your soul, eg go through The
Ten Commandments or The Beatitudes
27 Meditate on
God’s goodness to you, especially in recent days. Keep a weekly
diary of God’s providences
28 Write a journal entry concerning
God’s dealings with you over the last week
29 Write a pithy
sentence summing up some lesson you have learned in the last week
30
Write down one way in which you have related to God’s Word over the
past week in an alphabetically arranged book. Soon you will have your
own uninspired but personal Psalm 119
31 Write a letter or send an
e-mail to a missionary
32 Write a letter or send an e-mail or telephone to
encourage a fellow believer, someone recently bereaved perhaps
33
Write a letter or send an e-mail on behalf of a persecuted believer
34
Write a letter or send an e-mail to or telephone an unbeliever pointing them
to Christ
35 Telephone or text someone who was absent from church and see
how they are
36 If you know what the passage will be in the
evening look over it in preparation
37 Telephone someone to invite
them to the evening meeting
38 Go out evangelising with tracts,
door to door or something similar
39 Did the minister suggest
something in his morning sermon to look at or did something come to
mind as he preached - a passage to look up, a subject to investigate?
Start on it
40 Take a walk in the park or countryside and see how
many things you see to give thanks for
