“Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:10, NLT)
While we are living in this world, each one of us has twenty-four hours each day. That doesn’t seem like so much until you break it down and discover it represents 1,440 minutes! That’s a lot of minutes … and we all have the same amount to use. We may have different talents, and the amount of treasure varies from person to person, but we all have the same amount of time. And the basic question I have for you here is: In what ways are you using the time God has given to you in this world? Think about that for a few of your valuable minutes. Really! What are you presently using your time for? Are you frantically trying to cram in all of your commitments? Are you spending too much time on frivolous things? Are the things you are pursuing bringing you joy—or exhaustion? And if you are honest, how much of your time are you using up on perishable pursuits, and how much are you investing in God’s kingdom for eternal purposes?
Longevity of life is not really the issue here. Some people live very long lives and never accomplish anything of significance, while others accomplish a great deal in a very short amount of time. What is important is that we accomplish what we are supposed to in the amount of time we are given.
In many ways, time is like money. I didn’t say time is money, I said time is like money. It is a resource, a valuable one at that, and it is available to us to use in whatever way we choose.
With money, we all have fixed expenditures: housing, utilities, food, clothing, transportation. Many of us choose a standard of living that uses our money. We don’t often think about it in this way, but it’s true. After we pay for our fixed expenditures, whatever is left, what I call “discretionary,” we use on entertainment, eating out, vacations, and hopefully, ministry. All of this requires decisions.
The same is true of our time. We all have fixed “expenditures” with our time: a certain amount of sleep, regular work, eating, including whatever preparation is needed, and obligations to our families. The time we have left we see as discretionary, we can “spend” it on whatever we choose. However, one important factor to consider is that the lifestyle standard that we currently have for our “fixed” expenditures, whether that expenditure is money or time, directly affects what we have “left over.”
If I have a lifestyle that requires a lot of money, there isn’t much left over for anything else. If I have a lifestyle that requires a lot of my time, either for work or even a lot of “stuff” to maintain, I won’t have a lot of time for other important things. So we see that our discretionary time is also directly affected by the choices we make regarding our fixed commitments. We often feel like we don’t have any choices, but we always do.
What possibilities has God put in front of you to use your time for him??
Converterlators are thoughtful, disciplined, and intentional with the use of their time.