Everyone sooner or later faces challenges in time management and setting priorities if you have an agenda, bucket list, or a to-do list; here's some pertinent teaching:
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might..." (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
We always find time to do the things we want to do as a rule, but we must learn to be flexible and adjust to God's timetable and plan--things don't always go according to agenda because life is unpredictable and our autopilot may be beckoning us. God's providence has a reason and time for every purpose under the sun.
In today's rat-race and the dog-eat-dog world, we seem to attribute business as a virtue per se, regardless of the purpose. If you don't know why you're so busy, your life may be unmanageable and you need to make priorities. They say that time is of the essence. Tempis fugit, (time flies) the Latin expression goes, and when we're having fun we don't know where the time goes. The funny thing about our life is that it is like a vapor that vanishes and is soon over. Ernest Hemingway said, "Time is the thing we have least of;" that is true because we are just stewards of the time God gives us (all things belong ultimately to God). The abler we are, the more God assigns to be a steward of.
The point is to be faithful in what God gives you and not to compare yourself with others--their lifestyle is none of your business and not for you to judge--he is accountable to his God. What's the point in being busy when you don't have a purpose in living--that is just being a workaholic and being busy for its own sake. Sometimes God wants us to slow down and just enjoy life and Him in meditation. Life can get hectic, but if we don't watch it the devil will make us so busy we crowd God out of our lives. We should never be too busy for the Lord's work, just as Jesus never considered an interruption an inconvenience. Some people do have time on their hands and God is trying to teach them to redeem the time and live one day at a time: "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us be glad and live today" (Psalm 118:24). There are many things we can do to the time allotted to each of us, and we all have 168 hours per week to invest in God.
Work can be done to the glory of God--there is no special status to spiritual matters that qualify them to be of more inherent worthiness to invest in. Praying is no more "spiritual" than washing dishes to the glory of God! Work makes us realize the image of God in us and we see God at work through us--we have many given opportunities to work as unto the Lord. There are several things we can do to time: invest it, as in prayer because prayer saves time and the busier we are the more we need prayer; we can just spend time or be doing something to keep busy; we can waste time by doing nonproductive activities that don't glorify God; sometimes we can even be known to kill time because we have downtime and don't know what to do with the extra time available.
But remember, the most important pertinent admonition from Scripture is to "redeem the time because the days are evil." Find ways to bring glory to God in what you do. Being busy is not a virtue in itself unless it is to the glory of God; however, we should distinguish between being busy and staying busy. Workaholics are not virtuous because they are busier than most people, in the sense that they always have an excuse not to do the Lord's work. I can always find something to do and never get bored, but I am not ever too busy to drop everything and answer God's call. Stay busy, but don't get too busy your priorities are wrong--like crowding out family matters because work becomes your identity or number one priority.
When God's work is Job One, then everything falls into place. Our work doesn't define us, but how we do it and our attitude does. The thing we have to beware of is being slothful, lazy, or lethargic (one of the "seven deadly sins"). Christ promises us a more "abundant life" and as a blessing, we are given more opportunity to serve Him. In accountability, God doesn't want the leftovers of our time, but the prominent place and everything revolving around Him and to His glory. Lost opportunities can never be retrieved, like a spoken word or spent arrow, and we are accountable for them likewise as sins of omission. The book of Haggai shows us that as soon as the Jews put God first in building the temple, God blessed them for getting their priorities straightened out. Soli Deo Gloria!
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might..." (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
We always find time to do the things we want to do as a rule, but we must learn to be flexible and adjust to God's timetable and plan--things don't always go according to agenda because life is unpredictable and our autopilot may be beckoning us. God's providence has a reason and time for every purpose under the sun.
In today's rat-race and the dog-eat-dog world, we seem to attribute business as a virtue per se, regardless of the purpose. If you don't know why you're so busy, your life may be unmanageable and you need to make priorities. They say that time is of the essence. Tempis fugit, (time flies) the Latin expression goes, and when we're having fun we don't know where the time goes. The funny thing about our life is that it is like a vapor that vanishes and is soon over. Ernest Hemingway said, "Time is the thing we have least of;" that is true because we are just stewards of the time God gives us (all things belong ultimately to God). The abler we are, the more God assigns to be a steward of.
The point is to be faithful in what God gives you and not to compare yourself with others--their lifestyle is none of your business and not for you to judge--he is accountable to his God. What's the point in being busy when you don't have a purpose in living--that is just being a workaholic and being busy for its own sake. Sometimes God wants us to slow down and just enjoy life and Him in meditation. Life can get hectic, but if we don't watch it the devil will make us so busy we crowd God out of our lives. We should never be too busy for the Lord's work, just as Jesus never considered an interruption an inconvenience. Some people do have time on their hands and God is trying to teach them to redeem the time and live one day at a time: "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us be glad and live today" (Psalm 118:24). There are many things we can do to the time allotted to each of us, and we all have 168 hours per week to invest in God.
Work can be done to the glory of God--there is no special status to spiritual matters that qualify them to be of more inherent worthiness to invest in. Praying is no more "spiritual" than washing dishes to the glory of God! Work makes us realize the image of God in us and we see God at work through us--we have many given opportunities to work as unto the Lord. There are several things we can do to time: invest it, as in prayer because prayer saves time and the busier we are the more we need prayer; we can just spend time or be doing something to keep busy; we can waste time by doing nonproductive activities that don't glorify God; sometimes we can even be known to kill time because we have downtime and don't know what to do with the extra time available.
But remember, the most important pertinent admonition from Scripture is to "redeem the time because the days are evil." Find ways to bring glory to God in what you do. Being busy is not a virtue in itself unless it is to the glory of God; however, we should distinguish between being busy and staying busy. Workaholics are not virtuous because they are busier than most people, in the sense that they always have an excuse not to do the Lord's work. I can always find something to do and never get bored, but I am not ever too busy to drop everything and answer God's call. Stay busy, but don't get too busy your priorities are wrong--like crowding out family matters because work becomes your identity or number one priority.
When God's work is Job One, then everything falls into place. Our work doesn't define us, but how we do it and our attitude does. The thing we have to beware of is being slothful, lazy, or lethargic (one of the "seven deadly sins"). Christ promises us a more "abundant life" and as a blessing, we are given more opportunity to serve Him. In accountability, God doesn't want the leftovers of our time, but the prominent place and everything revolving around Him and to His glory. Lost opportunities can never be retrieved, like a spoken word or spent arrow, and we are accountable for them likewise as sins of omission. The book of Haggai shows us that as soon as the Jews put God first in building the temple, God blessed them for getting their priorities straightened out. Soli Deo Gloria!