How have you been spending your time lately? When you have time to do whatever you want to do (as infrequent as that may be), how do you spend it? Now, let me quickly assure you that this is not an article about time management and three steps to effectively managing your time. It’s about prayerfully considering how you are investing the 168 hours the Lord gives you each week.
Studies tell us that the average American Christian spends less than ten minutes per day alone with God, while spending nearly four hours each day watching television. Ten minutes with Truth . . . four hours with trash. It’s no surprise that the church in the United States is having very little effect on the surrounding culture and failing to impact the world for Christ.
Before you think you’re “off the hook” because you don’t watch much television, give some thought to the other things you do with your free time. Is there a hobby or recreation that consumes that time? Does a sports team consume that time? Your job? Is there a relationship that consumes your time? Anything smaller than God that consumes our time is simply a waste of time! And we need to remember that for every hour we spend, we have one less hour to spend!
Jesus spent every hour centered on the will of His Father in heaven. His meat and drink was to do the will of the Father (John 4:34). In one of His darkest moments, just hours before His crucifixion, sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, “Not my will, but your will be done.” Jesus knew what He was here to do, and He refused to let anything distract Him from it—not the devil, not even the religious leaders who dogged His every step. Every confrontation He had with them was another opportunity to do the will of God by teaching those who had ears to hear what was wrong with the world and what God was doing about it.
I recognize that none of us will never use all our time as wisely as Jesus did. I just think a little self-examination will go a long way in helping us use the precious, un-repeatable time we have been given more wisely. It’s important to note that Jesus never wasted a single moment, and yet we often find Him retreating from the crowds—retreating even from His disciples—to spend time alone with His heavenly Father.
So time well spent is time invested in service to our Lord and sitting before our Lord. You remember the story of Martha and Mary, don’t you? Mary, “who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching,” was commended by our Lord for choosing “the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 40:39, 42).
The only way to begin maximizing our time investments in the things that really matter in life is by keeping the Gospel before us each day. Remembering what Jesus has done for us is the key that unlocks the door leading to a life of meaning, significance and purpose. Like Lazarus lying dead in the tomb, we could not see, hear, smell, taste, talk, or walk. We were dead. But at the call of Christ, like the one He spoke that day—“Lazarus, come out!”—we too were raised from death to life, a life that is to be lived coram Deo—before the face of God.
Remember, when you spend an hour you have one less hour to spend . . . so spend it wisely!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 