Managing My Time God's Way Series

Illustration:

Imagine you were given $86,400 at the beginning of every day. You wake up in the morning and look in your checking account, and your balance reflects an increase of $86,400. There is only one catch, you have to use every single dollar that day, if you don’t spend it, you lose it. Of course the next day you begin all over again with another $86,400 to spend. What would you do with the money? Perhaps would buy a home on the lake, you could finally get one of those Dodge Hemi trucks they keep advertising on television. Maybe you would go for a trip around the world, living it up at the most luxurious places on earth. Perhaps you would be spiritual and decide to use the money to help other people, reduce world hunger, help spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the world. Think for a minute, what would you do with $86,400 every day?

I may have peaked your interest, where did I come up with the number 86,400. God has given us 86,400 seconds every day (24 hours, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute totals 86,400). Even if we subtract out eight hours of sleep (I am being generous since most people don’t get eight hours of sleep), it is still 57,600 second/day. These seconds are not transferable to the next day, you can’t take them with you. You get one shot to use them. When they are gone, they are gone, you can never go back and relive them again. When we wake up in the next morning we know that, God willing, we have 86,400 more seconds to use. How will we choose to use them? How will we spend our time, or how do I manage my time, my 86,400 seconds in a way that brings honor and glory to God.

Many people today struggle with time management. For many of us, we never seem to have enough time to do everything we want to do. We feel constantly pulled in many directions at once. Other are unsure if they are spending their time effectively. It seems no matter how hard we try we never feel as though we are managing our time well. This morning I am going to give us God’s time management plan.

1. My time is God’s time

First, if we want to honor God with our time, we have to realize that our time is not our own, it is God’s time. Unfortunately, we too often think that our time is ours to do whatever we wish with it. If we want to work, we can do that, if we want to watch television, we can do that, if we want to waste it doing nothing, we can do that. If we want to go do things we know are wrong we can do that. If we feel like coming to church, we can do that too. Certainly God has given us this freedom of choice, but God teaches us through the Bible tells us Psalm 24 that nothing we have is our own, it is God’s.

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it

God owns everything, and God distributes it to us according to his wisdom. Whether it is our job, our money, our abilities, our personality, even our time, it is a gift from God. Because I know we live in a very independent country I know you might be thinking, “but pastor Matt, I just went to the store yesterday and paid for everything with my own money, doesn’t that make it mine. I own my home (or at least the bank does), therefore it is mine not God’s.” But who gave you the abilities to do a particular thing well so you could get a job, who opened the door to give you a job which brought in a good income, who gave you the health to stay at a job to get all that you have? God did. I am not trying to putting down our effort at work, God created us for work, and it is through our hard work we get where we are, but the source of who we are and everything we have is God. God has made it possible by giving you the gifts you have, and by opening the doors that have made it possible.

If you are still skeptical, think of the story of a preacher who once delivered a rousing sermon on "God’s Ownership" that frustrated a rich parishioner in the church. The wealthy man took the preacher out for lunch, and then walked him through his immense land, including farm and livestock. "Now are you going to tell me that all this land does not belong to me?" The preacher smiled and said, "Ask me that same question a hundred years from now."