Here’s a vital topic for us to grapple with if we want our lives to be fruitful!
God has put enormous potential into every one of us. But what we achieve for his glory and kingdom over our lifetime is genuinely affected, very practically, by whether we learn some mastery of the skills of stewarding time. If I want to love the Lord with all my heart and soul, I need to make him Lord over my time!
This isn’t an easy issue to think about biblically. It didn’t arise in the first century because that simply wasn’t so pressured a society. But there are principles we can apply from what Scripture says about how we handle money. There’s a very challenging story in Mark 12: `Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few pence. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on”’ (NIV).
Jesus’ calling to us here is total discipleship, total dedication: a life where worship is my whole life-attitude, where I’m saying, Everything I have is a gift from God and belongs to him – my career plans, my sex life, my marriage plans, my house, my money, my time – Jesus I’m glad they’re all Yours, for Your loving, creative, eternal purposes – and I want to live that way!
So today then: Just how in practice will my love for God shape my time? We can surely apply the principle of the widow’s giving. God gives us a gift each week, seven days of 24 hours each. And it’s not a question of, I’ll give 10% to God for helping a youth group or homegroup leading, and then the rest is mine. It’s all God’s time: in our work, for our family, for leisure, for sleep, for watching football; it’s all from him and belongs to him… What then has he entrusted these hours to me for?`
This takes us right back to how we first became a Christian (and this happens over and over again, doesn’t it: any important issue will take us back to the central gospel in one way or another). We repented; that means we said we were sorry for sin and especially for our independence, and so we said, Lord, I give myself 100% to you, from now on I am yours, you are my Lord, all I have is yours. And living a truly fruitful life continues with the worship of seeing ourselves as 100% God’s. So we’re applying that here: Lord, my time is all yours; how do you want me to use the 168 hours you’ve entrusted to me this week? Where and how shall I invest it? How can I love you with all my soul in this? How do I, as your Word says, `make the best use of the time` (Eph 5:15 ESV)?
As we can grasp this it will change our lives; it will give us joy, it will mean we get the things accomplished that God created us for and that we long to do; it will mean eternal fruitfulness…
Learning to `redeem the time` (Eph 5:16 NKJV)
Our first step may well be to see where we really are, how we’re using God’s gift of those 168 hours a week. Maybe we should try keeping a chart for two weeks of how we’ve used them (divided perhaps into half-hours or hours) over two weeks. We may be surprised at what we discover! One of my Canadian colleagues said that when she did this, and realized she was spending 18 hours on TV each week, it really motivated her to get a grip on things!
Then: Whether or not we do an actual chart, we’ll be aware that there are certain main blocks of time that are fixed, and in all of which we are 100% His – work, family, rest. They are God’s purpose for us; and if they are God’s purpose, we can see them as acts of obedience and worship.
Our work, for example: work isn’t just something we get out of the way so that we can do the genuinely worthwhile things. It’s what God himself has given us to do, and created us for, for the majority of our time; something basic to being human (see Genesis 2). So it isn’t just a `waste of time`. We can learn to see our working time as a time when God wants to be `God with us` (Matt 1:23), where God has sent us to grow and also to be Christ’s presence as `little outposts of light`. Sometimes our profession may be called a `vocation`, which comes from a Latin phrase meaning `calling`; and that’s what our job is if we’ve gone into it listening for his will – it’s a calling from God. `Whatever you do`, says Paul in Colossians 3:23-24, `work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.` Work time is not wasted time; it’s growth time, it’s worship time, and it will be redeemed as we sense: This is a place God has called me into to grow, at least for now, and to be his presence…
Now there can be a problem here, that leadership-type people tend to want to be able to do everything. And we can’t. I used to think how blessed Margaret Thatcher was that she apparently only needed five hours sleep a night (before she got Parkinson’s disease), and how much more I could achieve if I were like that! But we must pray: Lord help me be practical, and recognize, with your help, the limits to how much I, personally, can do. There are deliberate decisions we must make here. I remember my old colleague Graeme Fairbairn saying how the time he invested in God’s service in church inevitably cut into the time he had for the reading and networking that would have advanced his secular career. We have to make these choices with God, and trust him for the consequences. Others of us may be led by God to take steps in using more time in the “secular” work he has called us to, that will actually leave us less time for church ministry. And there’s no reason to feel guilty about that, provided we’ve genuinely made the choice with God. But, we can’t do everything; there are choices we have to make from time to time.
Another crucial block of fixed time, that should feature significantly on our chart, is our family time, whether we’re married or single. Again, this surely isn’t something to get `out of the way` so that we can do `Christian things`! Again in Genesis we find that family life is a central part of human beings’ life-calling from God. One aspect of that, if we’re parents, may be our time with our kids; and that’s enormously important, because now’s the time to invest so that they become healthy followers of Jesus; they really won’t be around for long (as we’ll be well aware once they’re gone!) But as Graeme also said to me: we also want our kids to learn that there’s a real spiritual war on, and to show them the priorities we live by in the light of that. We need to ask the Lord to help us balance these things.
And a third, essential fixed block is our rest, sleep and `refreshment` time; and this too is from God; we’re looking after the body he’s entrusted to us. Does it happen simply because we are forced to take a break from what is truly worthwhile? No: it’s a purpose from God: `In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those he loves!` (Psalm 127). Our rest, sleep and refreshment time has a place in the rhythms of God’s purposes (more about this in a moment!) Receive it with worship as a gift from God!
So as we see God’s presence in each block of our time, this helps us find purposefulness and joy! (Or, if we’re doing something we can’t thankfully see as an act of worship and obedience, we probably shouldn’t be doing it at all?!)
Discretionary time
These first three are, we may say, non-negotiable, `fixed` blocks of time. But the bigger issue is what we learn to do with our `discretionary` time, the time we have control over to spend in different ways. And our prayer has to be, Lord, how do you want me to use your gifts of “spare” time?
The key lesson I myself learned from all the sessions I’ve been to on time management is this: In your discretionary time, identify the key thing you want to accomplish, and do that first. If small things get left and they actually matter, you’ll almost certainly fit them in somewhere. If the big ones get left, you won’t have space to. And as Jesus-followers this means, learn the discipline of choosing priorities, doing God’s key things first.
It’s in general a really important mental discipline to learn to do the key job first. It’s hard! Some days we come in to work and we feel woozy, and we change a printer cartridge and fiddle with some computer settings, then we read something, and then it’s coffee time, and then oops… most of the morning’s gone. On another day we exercise the mental discipline to do the big project first, and we usually manage to change the printer cartridge too! But on the days when we put the small things first, we often end up with a sense of futility and frustration at the close of the day. The same applies longterm to our lives; if we don’t learn to put the key things first, we’ll find we’ve spent our lives doing neither what God wanted nor the things we really wanted to do…
Let’s apply this now to redeeming spiritually our discretionary time. We need to learn the habit of planning in the key things first. What are they? First and above all, time with God. Why first? Because we’re called above all to love God with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength! (And secondly, though less importantly, without that we’ll be lacking God’s power for doing anything else.) But that means, each day, prioritizing it; planning in time for feeding on God’s Word and responding in prayer and worship; and then protecting that time (because Satan will do all he can to distract us from it). Jesus himself made this a priority (Mark 1:35), and we won’t thrive as a believer, and will fall far short of our potential, unless we do too!
Secondly, our key relationships. We’ve talked already about seeing the value in God’s eyes of the `fixed` time we automatically give to these, but here we’re making a different point: God calls us to make sure we deliberately invest discretionary time in them! That’s our key friendships, particularly if we’re single, and in our marriage if we have one. If we want our marriage to last, it’s essential we spend regular, significant time together at least once a week. (`Husbands, love your wives`(Eph 5:25) – this means time!) It amazes me when people tell me their marriages are a bit stressed and they don’t see the link to the fact that they haven’t been making those choices to spend good time together! Or if at present you’re called to be single, you’ve got other friendships that matter: plan in time for them! And likewise if we’re called to be parents, many of us may need to deliberately plan in, ensure, and protect time with our kids; I very much wish I had been taught that earlier in my own ministry. We need to plan these things in because we are wanting God to use us!
And then thirdly: plan in the time for your key area(s) of service to God. Give time to be a trustworthy steward of the gifts God has given you; pray & decide in God’s presence when and where you’re called to use them in building his kingdom. And fourthly, time for witness, because Jesus’ teaching throughout his last 40 days centred on the command to `go and make disciples of all nations` (Matt 28:19), and each of us is called to share Jesus with people who aren’t yet his followers. How are we planning intentional time with friends who don’t yet know Jesus? Church life can push this out! Some of us are in spiritual leadership roles where the sheer volume of work can squeeze witness out of our lives. But our priorities, and then our leadership, will warp, unless in some way we’re actively fulfilling the Great Commission; ultimately we must plan our lives in the light of a tragic world dying for lack of God. We need to pray, `Lord, help me never forget that this is a war zone; that people all around me are living futilely, and dying tragically, because they’re without Jesus. Help me remember that, whatever else you’ve given me to do, you’ve given me a part of the frontier of your kingdom, a place to share your love and truth, that is mine and mine only. And Lord, help me think and pray hard and realistically how to free up time to take your love and truth to the people across that part of the frontier you’ve given me.` Let’s dream big dreams of how God can use us in witness; and make sure we create space to share our faith. `Seeking first God’s kingdom` like this is a vital art.
If we don’t plan these things, social media, TV etc will squeeze them out, and we’ll look back over our life with God, and it will seem such a pity that so much of it was ultimately wasted… We need to plan in the things that matter!
(And in passing: We talked last time about the tithe – 10% – as a good starting-point (not a rule!) for thinking about how much of God’s money is given us for specific ministry purposes. How much of God’s time is given me for specific ministry purposes? Is the tithe a good starting point here too? And, what about in my working life, in my career? We’re here to be Christ’s ambassadors and to make disciples of all nations!)
But let’s make sure we plan in leisure too. Including a day off each week (`sabbath`) – this also is ordained by God (Mark 2:27)! My impression is that, for many of us, our day off a week is something we need to carefully protect – to protect ourselves from ourselves. Jesus’ teaching, and the ten commandments, make clear that, although joyful sabbath is made for people and not (as warped religion can say) people for the sabbath, yet it is indeed made by God for people, and we disregard what God has ordained here at our considerable peril!
Also I’ve never forgotten the answer another colleague, ex-missionary Patrick McElligott, gave once to the question `What do you want to become better at in this coming year?` My golf swing, he said! How unspiritual? No; God calls us to sabbath and leisure. (Whatever that may be for us: anyway something different that leaves us refreshed and renewed – time with relatives; rugby; Chinese food with friends; or, very possibly, just completely unstructured time. Obey Scripture and plan it in!) If we ignore these things we simply won’t last, and the burnout of longterm exhaustion can leave us damaged and less fruitful for a considerable time. Again, there may be deliberate decisions, even refusals, that we need to make here. I remember Jonathan Lamb from IFES saying that, in his experience of looking after Christian workers, he usually needed to urge them to do less, not more. And Lindsay Brown, also from IFES, said something along the lines of: If you can carefully safeguard your daily time with God; your food; your sleep; and your day off each week, you’ll go far. (Four things to check!!)
So let’s plan our discretionary time deliberately so that these key things happen. In a way this is the biblical principle of firstfruits: set aside time first to make sure the main things happen.
(There are various more `technical ` things that may help us. One is knowing the part of the day when you personally are at your best, and scheduling the most important things for then. Another is limiting certain types of tasks (answering emails, or phone or social media messages. for example) to one period of the day, so that they don’t keep on taking over what you’re doing. A third – depending on our personality – might even be to set a phone alarm so that you sense how time is passing; this can limit the danger of allowing a task to extend beyond the necessary time (eg continually perfecting or rephrasing an email) – or allowing our web-surfing or social media to last far beyond what we would have wanted. This `segmenting` of our time can also have significant health benefits, providing a break when we can rest our eyes by looking out of the window at something distant, or when we can get some exercise (and experts say this is surprisingly valuable) by walking up and down the nearest stairs.)
Two final comments however: Having said all this about planning, let’s learn also to be open to God and not frustrated when he – but HE! – overrules our plans. This means: don’t plan too tightly. My wife says I never leave enough space in my plans, and it’s true; I don’t allow sufficiently for the cussedness of life! (But that’s exactly why we need to ensure first that the key things happen.) And secondly another comment from Graeme Fairbairn: We can’t do it all; we’ve inevitably got to cut (and this also means, even while we should seek to be generous with our time, we need to know our limits, and learn how to say, gently, “No” when something can’t or shouldn’t be added in); but whatever you cut, don’t cut your time with God. UCCF general secretary Oliver Barclay likewise said he wished he had time for learning more languages, or real modern fiction, or scientific research; but, he said, we are limited people, and we have to recognise this to really live out the purposes God made us for. And therefore, plan: plan your disposable time so that you do get the key things done. What would your family write on your tombstone after the words `(S)he always made sure (s)he had time for… `: some television series? Social media? Us the family? God’s Word?
`A poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few pence. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.”’ So what is our calling as we manage our time? Does this mean we never watch a football international, or never watch a movie? No, it surely doesn’t! But we do want to say, Lord, may your kingdom come over the hours you have given me; help me seek first your kingdom over how I use my time. We simply won’t fulfil our potential unless we learn to shape our time under his lordship; it’s an indispensable art to learn. God loves us and wants to do practical and glorious things through our lives. These skills are not easy, but if we want to grow in making our lives permanently fruitful, the Spirit of Christ will most surely help us do so. We don’t want to reach old age and think, `I could have done so much more for the Lord if only I had learnt to manage my time!`
Like all disciplines, it’s a longterm lesson; but if we want to grow in stewarding God’s gifts of time by his Spirit’s power, he will help us, step by step; and we shall fulfil the potential he’s made us for. With his wisdom and his power inside you, commit each day to the Lord as it comes, and make sure the main things happen!
ABSORB TIME: Do I know how I’m actually using our time (do I need to chart it?) And are the main areas mentioned above in place, in the ways we feel God desires? What do I want to change?
Lord, please help me learn the way You look at my time, and Your priorities for my time. Help me determine to put them first, and may Your Spirit fill and guide me as I grow in this!
