You’ve said it. I’ve said it. We’ve all said it, and we’ve said it more than once...”I don’t have time.” Yep, Guilty as charged.
We are all given the same hours in a day, yet there are those seemingly unique people who were born with the gift of time management. Not only were they born with the gift of time management, they require very little sleep (I’m convinced they secretly have more hours in a day!)
You probably have a friend or two or ten like that as well as I do. And we have a relentless love-hate relationship with them. Why do they make it look so easy? Why do they insist on making us look bad? Do these people work? Do they hold real jobs, like 8-9 hour a day jobs?
Cold hard fact inserted here: We’re all given the same amount of time, so it boils down to this… we make time for what we want to do. We make time for that run to the ice cream shop, we make time for that game of golf, we make time for lunch with a friend. We make time for shopping, cooking, long showers, and hours to read that long awaited new book. We even make time for a nap or two. And the real HEATHEN among us, those who drive two hours just to eat dinner!
How about gardening? Adult color books? Games on our phones? How about that hour at the gym, that 40 minute bike ride, that 3 hour play date at the water park? How about hours spent scrolling on Pinterest and Facebook? Couponing clipping? Garage sales? Im certainly not saying any of those things are bad and we should obliviate them from our calendars, but the point of comparison is pretty easy to depict when we can find time to do THOSE things but cannot find time to do spiritual things.
So if it’s true that we have a generous 24-hour day, and if it’s true we can manage to squeak in a Chick-fil-a or Starbucks run, a few hours on a new book, a lengthy shower every day, then why can we not make time for Bible reading? Why can’t we seem to find time to pray? Why do we not take time to study? Why are spiritual disciplines so difficult to work in our schedule?
The day of dawning has arrived. Our moment of truth has come. The light is now on. Truth just kicked us in the shins. WE ALWAYS MAKE TIME FOR THE THINGS WE WANT TO DO.
OUCH! So the deduction is this: We either don’t REALLY want to put time and effort into spiritual disciplines, or we don’t value them ENOUGH to schedule them into our day.
That hurt just typing it out! Let’s pause.
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Excuses will be lame and embarrassing when we stand face to face with Jesus. When He reminds us of all those days we neglected to talk to Him, (or traded spiritual things for carnal things) NOTHING about that face-to-face moment will be easy.
The truth is that we need to SCHEDULE OUR VALUES. For the person who publicly announces on all their social media platforms that they are Christians (and we obviously know by all those butterfly-picture-verse reposts) Are you walking the walk? If we followed you around for a day would we know that you are a Christian, not by your confession, but by your discipliines?
God gave us time, we are time-managers. And unless we purposefully overload our days, when managed correctly, there is more than enough time to include spiritual disciplines. Could the bottom line be we have grown cold? Could the bottom line be we just don’t value our time with God like we used to? (We’ve lost our first love?) Could it be we feel that going to church once or twice a week is enough? We’ve “put in our time” Could it be we have convinced ourselves God somehow understands our busy lives? Could it be we’ve convinced ourselves we are good enough to not have to do them?
Romans 8
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Ephesians 5:16
Redeem the time, because the days are evil
Ecclesiastes 9:10
Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, wither thou goest.
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