Why We Have No Excuse for Managing Our Time?
Time Management for Believers – Part 1
Warning: This section is for people-of-faith. What this means is that we will allow non-people-of-faith to eavesdrop on how people-of-faith handle this idea of time management or better stated, how to get the right things done in the time given. It also means many of the points could be a little tough to swallow. However, the goal as usual is to take you to the next level.
To be totally transparent, this next set of lessons is to address how believers should be managing how he or she uses their time. What I’ve noticed over the years is that people-of-faith have a few misconceptions about time management as if we are excluded from managing what we do with time. In fact, we should be setting examples for the rest of the world when it comes to managing what we do in the time we have. With that said, here are the four main ideas we will cover in this next series of lessons:
- Why following Jesus brings better time management?
- Success and mastering time go together.
- To do something new means you replace something old.
- A tithe of your time is as important as a tithe of your income.
Six Difficulties to Mastering Time
We will begin with the challenges that face normal people when it comes to mastering time. Ordinary is the person who doesn’t manage time well. Normal is the person who runs out of time. Average is the person who says he or she doesn’t have enough time. These statements lend to the belief that someone else is in control of what you do. The truth is there are a number of reasons why one’s mismanagement of how time is used doesn’t fall on anyone else. We will explain using six of the main reasons why mastering time can be difficult for a regular person.
- When you don’t know what’s important.
When you can’t state what’s important, then what is important doesn’t get the attention it really needs of you. You can not be mad at anyone but yourself if you have not identified what’s important for you to get done. - When you have too many things to do.
This one is tricking because society thinks this is a good place to be. Just because you have too much to do does not give you an excuse not to have a plan for your time. - When life happens.
“When life happens” represents the things that are unpredictable, like a flat tire. If life happens to everyone, then a believer should expect life to happen and have a plan for when it does. You are the light of the world. That means you must know how to handle it when life happens. Again, this section is for people-of-faith. - When others need your time.
This should be obvious, but living in a world with people means at some point (more often than not) someone will need some of your time. - When we mismanage the time we have.
The natural, normal human behavior is to mismanage time. This comes in many forms. It could be as simple as procrastinating or as complicated as preparing to make better use of the time you have when standing in a line, such as in GTD (Getting Things Done). In either case, normal people waste time. You, my friend, are not normal and therefore, must be an example to others in maximizing how you use yours. - When you allow your tools to get in the way.
Generally this occurs when we use technology. For example, there are so many distractions that occur when using a smartphone. We call this noise or productivity pollution. It’s when the very thing that’s meant to make your life better becomes the very thing that makes it harder. You must learn to master yours in such a way that they don’t distract you from your work.
A Time Management Example Worth Following
I can’t say this enough; this is for people-of-faith. Therefore I’d like to use a Bible story to give an example of how Jesus managed to use His time. Before I do, I must state the obvious, He created time. Time didn’t dictate His life, but He used it to do life.
Jesus had a friend named Lazarus who grew so sick that He died. As this story goes, Jesus intentionally waited when He received news that His friend was sick. He actually waited until long after He had passed. [1] Let’s put a bookmark here for a second. This story is helpful to observe how The Master mastered His time. I have six attributes seen in Jesus using this story that we as people-of-faith should have.
- Discipline
Jesus displayed extreme discipline in sticking with His plan not to go heal His friend before the time He planned to go. As people-of-faith, we must be disciplined in taking the actions needed to fulfill our own plans. Too often we allow our lack of discipline to keep us from following the plan. - Clear priorities
Jesus had clear priorities when it came to what He was doing. He didn’t just stop what He was doing at the news regarding His friend. He stayed put and on course with His priorities. As people-of-faith, do we have clear priorities? Have you set your priorities for today? When you have clear priorities you know what to do and when to do it. - Dealing with what’s out of your control
In the city where Lazarus lived, the people there threaten to stone Jesus and His disciples. In other words, there were death threats on His life. Those threats were out of his control and could have been a great excuse for not accomplishing His priorities. A believer doesn’t have the option of being deterred by what’s out of her or his control. We deal with it and move on. Jesus’s words to His disciples were, “I will go and wake him up.” [2] In other words, you can only control what you can control and only do what you can do. - Minimize distractions
There were several distractions that could have gotten Jesus off track. His disciples thought it was too dangerous. Lazarus’ sister told Him He was too late and that He should have been there earlier. Besides that Lazarus was now dead. Distractions may come in many forms and from various places, but you can not allow distractions to stop you from fulfilling your plans. - Setting boundaries
When Jesus arrived in Lazarus’ city, He chose not to go to his home or even to the place where Lazarus was buried. He stayed outside of the village. [3] This is important to note. Jesus set boundaries. He didn’t get into the thick of the moment or the emotions of it all. He set boundaries. You will need to set some boundaries when it comes to what you do with your time. Believers do set boundaries you know? What boundaries do you need to set? - Maintaining focus
Through this whole ordain, Jesus could have lost focus of what was important. The priority was to go and wake Lazarus up. [1] What seems to be an impossible situation didn’t deter Him, but rather Jesus maintained His focus. Even though the odds may be stacked against you, maintain your focus.
As a believer and with the examples we have from The Bible, you and I have no excuse in mismanaging our time. Being a good manager of what we do with our time is like a commandment. A person who uses excuses to justify misuse of what gets done in an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year and more, should have a problem identifying as a believer. As ambassadors for Jesus, we should be the best at getting things done in any amount of time we have. If necessary, we can stop, pause, or even expand it. This is what believers do. We don’t run out of anything, not money nor time. It’s time we take this concept of time management to the next level and set an example for others to follow.
Question: how are you measuring up when it comes to how you manage what you do with your time?
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Find out more about the Family plan here.[1] John 11:1-45 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 8, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.11.1-45.NLT
[2] John 11:11 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 8, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.11.11.NLT
[3] John 11:30 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 8, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.11.30.NLT
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
