{"id":2534,"date":"2013-12-10T14:40:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T19:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2013-12-10T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T19:40:08","slug":"making-time-learning-to-invest-this-precious-gift-from-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/making-time-learning-to-invest-this-precious-gift-from-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Time: Learning to Invest This Precious Gift From God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TIME has been on my mind a lot lately.\u00a0 As I near the end of another year, I&#8217;m analyzing what has gone well and what hasn&#8217;t gone quite as well (notice the gracious way in which I didn&#8217;t say those things bombed?)\u00a0 One thing that I haven&#8217;t done so well on is managing time.\u00a0 I can think back to many opportunities missed and time that I let get away from me.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/81509947\" height=\"283\" width=\"500\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, I preached a message called &#8220;Making Time,&#8221; in which I looked at some of the characteristics of time and then what Scripture says about it.\u00a0 Three important things for us to remember about time is that it is a gift, it is limited and it is progressive.\u00a0 It is the only gift that God gives that we can&#8217;t receive again.\u00a0 Once time is gone, it is simply gone.\u00a0 It can&#8217;t be saved, paused or rewound.\u00a0 It moves forward without mercy.\u00a0 So the only thing we can do is <em>manage<\/em> the time we&#8217;ve been given.\u00a0 The problem is that most of us have done a really bad job at this. We&#8217;ve spent so much of our lives <em>killing<\/em> time, we should probably be convicted of murder!<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Look, I know that it&#8217;s virtually impossible to make every minute productive.\u00a0 Frankly, I&#8217;m not saying that we should.\u00a0 We&#8217;re not made to &#8220;produce&#8221; 24\/7.\u00a0 God built in rest and has made us to enjoy free time, having fun and re-energizing our lives.\u00a0 I do, however, think that it is possible&#8230;and proper&#8230;to work towards making every moment, even free time, <em>meaningful<\/em>.\u00a0 That&#8217;s the idea behind 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says, &#8220;Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.&#8221;\u00a0 This clearly says that everything is to be sanctified before God, taking all aspects of life, even the simple and mundane, seriously regarding the time that is dedicated to it.<\/p>\n<p>So, what else does the Bible say about how we spend our time?<\/p>\n<p>First, it communicates that we need to approach how we manage our time with <em>humility<\/em>.\u00a0 Look at what James says about it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Come now, you who say, &#8216;Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit&#8217;\u2014 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.\u00a0 Instead you ought to say, \u201cIf the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.\u201d As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Since time is a gift that we&#8217;ve done nothing to receive, we need to <em>humbly<\/em> consider how we are going to use what we&#8217;ve been given.\u00a0 We need to realize that we are mortal and, as mortals, vulnerable.\u00a0 We are not, in any way, promised tomorrow, so we do well to make the most of today, grateful to God for the &#8220;then&#8221; and the &#8220;now,&#8221; without assuming the &#8220;later.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That leads to a second thing the Bible tells us to consider in managing our time:\u00a0 We must <em>take stock<\/em> of our time using the gift of wisdom (<a title=\"James 1:5 (ESV)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=james%201:5&amp;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\">James 1:5<\/a>).\u00a0 This means that we need to think about how we are spending our time and what we&#8217;re using it on. Here&#8217;s how Paul put it to the Ephesians:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.&#8221;\u00a0 Ephesians 5:15-17<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Are we using our time in accordance with our calling?\u00a0 If you do not understand what God wants you to, <em>specifically<\/em>, do with your time, you will fill it up with things that <em>waste<\/em> time; things that don&#8217;t honor God or bring satisfaction or purpose to your life.<\/p>\n<p>The remedy, then, once we understand where our time is going, is to <em>invest<\/em> it.\u00a0 Once we take stock in our time, we can find the culprits that steal our time and re-claim or redeem it.\u00a0 As we eliminate those things, we see <em>margin<\/em> being built into our lives&#8211;precious free time that can then be used for those things that are of the most value&#8211;things like family and friends, church, work and rest.<\/p>\n<p>It is often very hard, but if we&#8217;re going to be healthy individuals, we have to find the balance between work and rest, the extreme of either bringing us to a state of imbalance, leaving us either workaholics or slugs!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"twttr_buttons\"><div class=\"twttr_twitter\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=Making+Time%3A+Learning+to+Invest+This+Precious+Gift+From+God\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-via=\"\" data-hashtags=\"\"  data-size=\"default\" data-url=\"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/making-time-learning-to-invest-this-precious-gift-from-god\/\"  data-related=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TIME has been on my mind a lot lately.\u00a0 As I near the end of another year, I&#8217;m analyzing what has gone well and what hasn&#8217;t gone quite as well (notice the gracious way in which I didn&#8217;t say those things bombed?)\u00a0 One thing that I haven&#8217;t done so well on is managing time.\u00a0 I&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"Making Time: Learning to Invest This Precious Gift From God","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[19,542],"tags":[45,684,685,614,357,453],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-ES","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2947,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/gods-gift-of-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":0},"title":"God&#8217;s Gift of People","date":"April 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I was studying in 2 Timothy 4 this morning where in verse 9, Paul tells Timothy to \"do your best to come to me soon.\"\u00a0 Clearly, as Paul goes on in that passage, some things have not gone well. He has been abandoned by everyone, even having one guy, Alexander\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Christian Living&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/support.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3987,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/when-all-hope-is-gone-but-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":1},"title":"When All Hope is Gone&#8230;But God","date":"September 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Ephesians 2. This is the chapter where Paul tells us that we were once dead in trespasses and sin, living according to power of evil, carrying out all of our sinful desires, indulging ourselves in everything that leads to righteous wrath and\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/7B19CFE2-1FA1-4660-A8F6-318A582760C0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/pushing-40\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":2},"title":"Pushing 40","date":"May 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This Saturday, I officially turn 40. I use the term \"turn\" intentionally because I've been \"pushing\" 40 and, unfortunately,\u00a0it's been pushing back pretty hard. I don't think I want to \"hit\" 40 for fear of what might happen. I've spent the last three days in the hospital with acute sinusitis.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Personal&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1150,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/1150\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":3},"title":"Not a morning person?\u00a0 I've\u2026","date":"January 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a morning person?\u00a0 I've never quite been able to decide if I am or not.\u00a0 I love mornings, but sometimes I have a tough time claiming the time for productivity.\u00a0 Besides the fact that it's the quietest time of day, it's also usually the time when my mind is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Productivity&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1123,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/what-a-gift\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":4},"title":"What a Gift!","date":"December 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Amazing video of the Kimyal people receiving the Bible into their own language for the first time.\u00a0 This is a good reminder to me on this Christmas Eve of the blessing of Christ coming and the very Scripture that reveals Him that I so quickly take for granted.\u00a0 God, forgive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Missions&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4375,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-twilight-of-childhood-celebrating-andrews-12th-birthday\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":5},"title":"The Twilight of Childhood: Celebrating Andrew\u2019s 12th Birthday","date":"March 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s a hard time of life. You\u2019re not a \u201clittle kid\u201d anymore but you\u2019re not a teenager, either. They call them the \u201ctween years,\u201d which I think means you are lost somewhere between the whacky childhood years and the chaotic teen years. Whatever it is, today our Andrew officially enters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/17F6E8DA-1DFA-494B-BB74-F66803D6727E.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1015&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2541,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}