Why? I have been a really bad steward of the time that God has given me and need to receive some instruction from God, encouragement and straight up lecturing on how better to effectively use my time for God. After all, time is more precious than money. You can NEVER get it back.
My prayer today: Lord, help me to put you first and be a WISE steward of YOUR time. The time that I have is not my own. It is yours, O Lord. And all of a sudden, an episode of Circle Square, a children's Christian show comes to mind. an episode on time. And, I remember a line in that episode that said, The time that you waste is not your own. Lord, I need forgiveness for wasting your time. How can I waste God's time? What is wrong with me? Lack of discipline and focus. Lack of setting my eyes of what matters, Lack of keeping my priorities in mind. I have also placed earthly goals above heavenly ones. This too is my problem. God, I thank you for showing them to me.
1) “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”- Isaiah 26:3
This is the verse of the day from Bible Gateway.com. It has absolute relevance to my meditation on time today BECAUSE one thing that causes the lost of time is distraction, worry, fluttering about within my mind. When my mind is focused on God, steadfast and immovable on my PRIORITIES, which first and foremost is praising God and building up HIS kingdom, then and only then, will I be in PERFECT PEACE. Not partial peace, but PERFECT peace!!
Here is the equation Isaiah 26:3 presents:
Trust in God, + persistent, continual, and focused mind = Perfect peace.
Do I trust God with my life? with my schedule? to order my steps? Am I focused enough to hear God's voice, His instructions to me today? Am I aligned with His purpose for my life? Lord, align me with YOUR purpose for My life. For truly, this life is not my own. (why do I behave as if it is.)
2) A Time for Everything (one of the most important teachings on time.)
Ecclesiastes 3 - A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
15 Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account. [a]
One thing that Ecclesiastes 3 (the writer Solomon at the end of his life) emphasizes that there is a time for everything. In order to know what time it is and what the time is for, I must be in tune with God and his instruction and His purpose for my life -- at every moment. There is a time for everything t hat needs to be done, but I must be careful not to do things in the wrong time. This has been a lot of my problem lately. Doing things at the wrong time. Not setting and keeping PRIORITIES. and taking too long to do things I should only spend a few moments on. I like the recommendation Anu gave me the other day. She said she sets specific time limits to spend time on an allotted task (esp. tasks that can take a long time and suck her time) and after that time she moves on to something else, whether it is done or not. Then, she will come back to it another time and spend more time. An example is cleaning her room. Rather than spend hours cleaning or straightening up, she says, I will spend 30 minutes on this task right now -- whatever I can get done in 30 minutes. Doing things for smaller amounts of time is also a helpful strategy to stay focused. Racing against the clock, I am less likely to get distracted by picking up a book and glancing through it. I am also less likely to get overwhelmed or stop in the middle. This is what I should have done yesterday. I would have gotten much more done in my cleaning and straightening up if I had given myself a time limit.
In the future, I will not start some tasks (like cleaning, playing around on the computer, or e-mailing) without giving myself a time limit AND abiding by that limit. When the time is up, I will stop and move on to the next task at hand.
One other thing that Ecclesiastes mentions: 1) God wants us to be happy and satisfied in the work we do and what we accomplish. That we are able to do so is a gift from Him. By not taking joy and excitement in my work, I am missing out on God's gift to me. By not being accomplished in what I set out to do, I am also missing out on God's promise. God wants me to end the day with a feeling of accomplishment, not one of failure and defeat. Strive to end the day with accomplishment so God can also say, "Johonna, well done." I must work to the glory of my Heavenly Father. My work is not unto myself. But really, I work for God. When I waste time, I should remember that God, not me or anyone else, is my supervisor. He can see me goofing off, for hours upon hours. the sleep and the slothfulness. I really gotta do better. Lord, please forgive me. Thank you for these revelations.
The third thing that Ecclesiastes says that I should take note of is that God made everything beautiful in ITS TIME. This also comes back to the fact that there is a time for everything and that God did not set out to get everything done at once. He is God and He could have created the whole world in a day. But he didn't decide to do that. Why in my own small being do I try to take on so many things to do in one day? This is setting myself up for failure and a feeling of defeat. I must remember to be like God and pace myself. Set up a plan. Am I creating a world? What will I make each day? Make time to rest after the task is completed.. like God did.
Another thing that I saw when I was searching the Scriptures for verses on time is that many verses say "in the time of..." so and so. That God had an appointed time and season for just about everything. What season is this for me? What time is it? It is definitely time for me to wake up and spend more time with God.
which leads me to another important verse on time..
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (referring to food, clothing and shelter mentioned earlier in the chapter) will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This is that we should seek God's kingdom FIRST. The lesson here is that I must not only do things in the right time periods, spending the right amounts of time on them, but also the ORDER matters. This verse tells me that the first thing that is my priority is focusing on my relationship with God and building up his kingdom (which includes building up myself and others.) This tells me that I can not be too busy for people, esp. so as to be an effective minister for God and blessing to others. I know from experience that when I do not start my day with God, I am not at peace and my mind is hectic crazy all over the place, thinking that I need to stop what I am doing to praise and pray.
Lord, I thank you for your teachings on time for me this day and I pray that you will continually equip me with the wisdom, ability, discipline and focus to be a better steward of the time you have given me on earth. Truly, truly, my time is not my own.
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