There are some people who when they want to move dirt, have a front end loader or a scraper or a bobcat in their yard and can move any kind of dirt any time without problem. Others have to rent or borrow this kind of equipment or use a shovel.
There are some people who, when they want a new car, go to the dealership pick the model and color they want then ask what they owe. Other people have to scrimp and save to get a used car and even then have to borrow to pay for it.
There is no doubt that in many areas of life we have differing access to resources. We are not equal in these areas, some have many resources, others have fewer, but there is one area in which we are all equal. We all have 24 hours a day. With the resource of time, no one has more than anyone else each day.
Of course there is one way in which there are differences in this resource and that is in how many days we will live. God is eternal. Psalm 90:2 says, “from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Our time, however, is limited. We, don’t know how many days we are given. Psalm 89:47 says, “how fleeting is my life.” However, since this is true for each one of us, it is still true to say that there is equality in the resource of time.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we all accomplish the same amount with the time we have been given. Even though every one of us has only 24 hours a day, some people seem to be able to accomplish much with that time while others waste vast amounts of time. Some are always busy, but in the end accomplish little of value.
Because we all have the same amount of time and because we don’t know exactly how much time we have, we need to think about what we do with the time we have. Does it matter? Does God have a claim on our time? Does the Bible have anything to say about how we use our time?
Make The Most Of Your Time!
It Matters
The Bible does speak to this. Two verses which talk about time are Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5. Ephesians 5:16 says, in NIV, “making the most of every opportunity.” Other translations say it a little differently and help us understand what this means. NKJV - “redeeming the time;” ESV - “making the best use of the time” and NASB - “making the most of your time.” The other passage is Colossians 4:5 which says, in NIV, “making the most of every opportunity.” Once again different translations help us understand this phrase: NKJV – “redeeming the time” and RSV - “making the most of the time.” In other words, it does matter. God does care about how we use the 24 hours we have each day and each day we have been given.
Why does it matter?
Because The Days Are Evil
Ephesians 5:16 tells us that the reason to make good use of our time is “because the days are evil.” This verse is written in the context of what has preceded. The surrounding chapters call us to recognize that we belong to God and not to this world. In Ephesians 4:17, we are reminded that we should “no longer live as Gentiles do.” We no longer belong to the world and so should no longer live according to the ways of the world. Instead, Ephesians 5:1 calls us to “be imitators of God,” and 5:8 challenges us to “live as children of light.” Given that we are God’s children living in this world means that we should use our time well because, “the days are evil.” If we are not careful to use our time with God in mind, we will find that we are easily drawn into the ways of the world around us. Because there is so much evil in the world, we can easily be drawn into its evil. Just as a vacuum is quickly filled with whatever it can suck up, so if our days are empty and not deliberately filled with making the most of them, they will suck up whatever is close at hand. Marcus Barth says, “In the face of onrushing evil, the saints are all the more called upon and equipped to consider the present period a time of salvation, to take up the good fight, and to carry it out successfully.” Irwin Penner says, “The Christian does not forsake the evil works of darkness to lapse into idleness, but works hard to use all of his time for God’s glory.”
Because We Have A Call
Colossians 4:5 gives a different reason why we need to make the most of every opportunity. This verse is written in the context of gospel proclamation. In the earlier part of this chapter, Paul asks the people of Colossae to pray for him that “God may open a door for our message.” Colossians 4:5 says, “be wise in the way you act toward outsiders” and then goes on in 4:6 to say, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” It is in this context of letting others know about Jesus that we are called to “make the most of every opportunity.” God has given us incredibly good news. His message of salvation is for everyone in the world. How are we using our time to make it known? It is important that we use our time well in the work God has given us to do. I like the way NT Wright speaks about Colossians 4:5, when he says, “every opportunity is to be snapped up like a bargain.”
So it is important to use our time well in order to avoid involvement in the evil of the world around us and in order to be fully involved in the work of God. In other words, using our time well is an integral part of who we are in Christ.
Making The Most Of Your Time
So how do you use time well?
Defining Values
The other day we watched a show on TV about kayaking, which really interested me. It was about a professional kayak team run by the manufacturer of Jackson kayaks. I believe it is a family run company and the father and the children also make up most of the team which travels to different events to compete in their kayaks. It was fun to watch them run rivers and play in the tidal waves in the ocean, but it was also interesting to hear the father’s philosophy of life. He said on the show that it was best to “live doing what you want to do today.” His highest value is pleasing himself each day and I suspect that value determines how that family uses its time.
How we use our time will be determined by what we value. You have probably heard the saying, “there is always time for what’s important.” Sometimes we are invited to participate in an event and we say, “I don’t have time.” When someone says this to me or when I say it to someone I wonder if it is really true. Certainly there are times when it is, but often it would probably be more honest to say, “I value other things more than what you are inviting me to participate in.” Another way to discern what our values are is by observing what we actually do. I have heard people say, “show me your bank book and your day timer and I will tell you what is important to you.”
All of us value different things, but an important question we need to think about is, “How have our values been formed by God?” Are the values we live by the values which we want to have as followers of God? If it matters to God how we use our time, God will also have some things to say about what we should value. How do we discern those values which God approves?
Romans 12:2 speaks of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This teaches us that when the Spirit of God comes into us when we become followers of Jesus, our minds are transformed and God’s values begin to form in us. It is with this transformed mind that we need to ask God for wisdom to develop a set of values which fit with who we are in Christ. This is a lifetime exercise, but remember this, it is important to engage in that exercise. If we live by default, never considering our values, never upgrading our values, it will be difficult for us to “make the most of the time.”
What are some of the values which God’s Word teaches us?
Nurturing A Relationship With God
First and foremost is the value of nurturing a relationship with God. Although we find instruction on this throughout the Bible – encouragements to know God, to read His Word, to pray - the most powerful picture demonstrating the importance of such a relationship is that of Jesus and how he got along with the Father. In many places we see how Jesus went away from the crowds and even the disciples to spend time in prayer. In the conversation between Jesus and God recorded in John 17, we have a wonderful picture of the intimacy which Jesus shared with His Father. It permeates the passage from the beginning where it says, “Father…Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you” to the end where it says, “you loved me before the creation of the world.” The reason that Jesus had such a relationship of intimacy with the Father was because even though He was God, He nevertheless continued to nurture a relationship with God. If Jesus needed to spend time nurturing a relationship with God, how much more do we!
Serving God
A second value which Scripture teaches is the importance of serving God. Once again we see this value throughout Scripture. Joshua 22:5 says, “hold fast to him and … serve him with all your heart and all your soul.” Romans 12:11 also encourages “serving the Lord.”
Caring For Our Family
Another value promoted by God in His Word is the value of caring for our family. Both Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 speak of the importance of family relationships. I Timothy 5:4 tells us that the children of widows should “put their religion into practice by caring for their own family.”
Loving Others
Loving others is also a value which is all over the Bible. In I John 4:11 we read, “since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” One of the exercises I do with baptism classes to help them see how important loving relationships are in the church community is to examine all the times the New Testament uses the phrase “one another.” It is really incredible how often it appears and most of the time this phrase is associated with the word love. We recognize it as one of the top commandments as Jesus Himself has said.
Caring For Our Body And Mind
The last one I would want to mention is that the Bible also speaks about caring for our own selves. It actually assumes that we will do so in Ephesians 5:29 which says, “no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it.” However, there are other Biblical perspectives which also speak to this issue. One could think about the passages which call us to be good stewards of the resources we have been given, which would include the resource of our body and mind. Another perspective would be to remind ourselves that God Himself rested on the seventh day and a part of that rest, which He commanded us to keep, is to rest from our work. Therefore, it is a Biblical value to take time to look after our physical body, to look after and nurture our mind and to get sufficient rest.
There are probably other values which we could find, but these are probably the main ones which have an impact on our use of time. Of course I Corinthians 10:31 would be the value which is above all of these when it says, “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Budgeting Time
Discerning and choosing our values will go a long way towards helping us use our time wisely, but even then we may not always do what we value. Proverbs 20:4 says, “a sluggard does not plow in season.” This suggests that we may have the best of intentions, but you may know the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Fulfilling this command of Scripture also involves managing our calendar well and disciplining our life so that we use our time well.
One way to find out if the values we claim to hold, as we have discussed above, are actually the values we live by, is to do an evaluation of how we use our time. In order to find out how you are actually using your time, for a week or two, make a list of what you have done each hour of each day. It is a bit of a job, but it will help you accurately see where your time is going.
If we were to do that, we would find out how our time is being used. Perhaps we would discover something like the following, in which the values we have declared above are all accounted for. We might find that in a 24 hour period we sleep 8 hours a day and work 8 hours a day. We might find that on average we spend about 30 minutes a day having devotions, 2 hours a day relating to our children, spouse and parents, an hour a day eating, an hour a day working on things specifically as a service to God – like teaching Sunday School or singing at Union Gospel Mission, an hour a day building relationships with others, an hour a day looking after our home and yard – cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, half an hour getting some exercise and an hour reading a book or learning something or just enjoying recreational pursuits.
Of course life isn’t like that. When it is harvest, farmers work 18 hours a day for several days in a row, but then they have other times when that which has been missed is picked up. We may go to work with MDS for a solid week but then spend only an hour a week the rest of the year as an usher on Sunday morning. But if the values we claim do not show up in some way on a regular basis in our calendar, can we really say that we are making the most of our time?
What if we were to do such an evaluation and find that there is little place in our life for nurturing our relationship with God? Is that what we really want in our life? As we consider the reason Ephesians 5:16 gives for making the most of our time – “because the days are evil” - isn’t that reason enough to make sure we are in a close relationship with God? God is the one with whom we will spend eternity, but that is no excuse to put that relationship off until later. In fact that is reason to make the most of our time by spending some time each day specifically devoted to talking to God and listening to God.
What if we were to do such an evaluation and find that there is nothing that we do specifically as a service to God? As we consider the reasons God calls us to make the most of our time in Colossians 4:5 - because of the great opportunity to share the great message of the gospel - isn’t that reason enough to deliberately think about where we are serving God? The Sunday School committee is looking for teachers and Awana will also be looking for leaders. If we have no specific place where we can say, “Here is where I am serving God” maybe we need to sign up!
On the other hand, if we have been elected to 3 or 4 committees in the church and are spending 2 or 3 hours a day at church, where is that time coming from? Either we are doing a poor job of one or all of our positions or we are stealing time from our children or parents or perhaps even from nurturing a relationship with God.
What about those things which can so easily eat up time? On a website on time management, I read the following, “How much of your life is spent on “time wasters”? These are activities that do nothing to enhance your quality of life, and actually prevent you from accomplishing more important goals. You know you’ve been seduced by a time waster when you find yourself:
watching TV shows you don’t really care about
checking email over and over throughout the day
surfing the internet or cruising chat rooms with no purpose in mind
wandering around stores, just looking for bargains
spending a few hours every day running errands
What if we look at our time evaluation and find that we are watching 3 or 4 hours of TV a day or spending an hour or 2 on the computer. Where is that time coming from? Which of the values we claim to have are not happening? Electronics, specifically TV and computer, including video games, can be huge time wasters if we do not take control of them. When internet was first available, I remember some friends of mine talking about spending the whole night surfing the web.
The article I mentioned above went on to suggest the following ways of removing the time wasters.
“When you come home, leave the TV off and find a more meaningful way to decompress (go for a walk, read a book, play with your kids). Review the TV schedule once a week, find those shows you really care about, and record them to watch later without commercials.
If you lose track of the world while web-surfing, set a timer to go off in 15 or 20 minutes. Make yourself get up and turn off the computer when it dings.
For 30 days, shop only from a list. Only go to stores that carry the item you need, and if you don’t actually need anything, don’t go to the mall in the first place.”
As we evaluate how we use our time, we need to make sure that what we truly value is included.
Conclusion
John Piper gives us a simple way of looking at how we use our time when he says, “Buy up the opportunities of life for eternity.”
In Luke 19 Jesus tells a story of 10 servants who were each given one mina. The king who gave them these resources told them, “Put this money to work until I come back.” In the course of time, the king returned and found that one servant had earned ten more minas. A second servant had earned 5 more minas. These two were rewarded for using the resources they had been given. A third servant came and returned the mina. He gave the excuse that he was afraid of the master. This servant was punished and what he had was taken from him. Although a mina is a unit of money, I believe that Jesus’ intent is to teach us that we are responsible for all of the resources which He has given us, including time. Each 24 hours is a gift from God. Each day we have been given is a gift from God. The Bible calls us to “make the most of the time” which we have been given. When the King returns, He will ask us what we have done with what He has given us. May He find us faithful, redeeming the time for our King.
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