"If you were on an ark full of animals, similar to Noah’s, and the boat began to sink, would you first throw overboard the spiders, ants, and grasshoppers or would you start with the elephants?
The elephants of course, because they carry the most weight. You could throw thousands of insects overboard and not come near the weight of a single elephant. That illustrates an important principle for managing time.
We often focus our attempts to save time on little bugs like buying gadgets which supposedly make some seldom performed job easier, when it’s actually the elephants that are sinking our ship. Mammoth blocks of time like unfulfilling work or jumbo time wasters like frivolous television consume large chunks of our most valuable resource and hinder us from true effectiveness as Christians.
Take a moment right now to identify the big items in your schedule- your elephants. Then, determine which ones you need to keep feeding and which ones need to go overboard in order for you to redeem the time.
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"A woman had twins and gave them up for adoption. One of them went to a family in Egypt and was named ""Ahmal."" The other went to a family in Spain who named him ""Juan."" Years later, Juan sent a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she told her husband “I sure wish I had a picture of Ahmal.” To which Her husband responded, ""Hey, they're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal.""
Well, there may be cases where when you’ve seen one you seen ‘em all. An example could be afternoon TV soap operas. Its hard to imagine anything more time consuming and less productive for a Christian, or anyone else for that matter, to participate in than watching these programs. The soaps today are filled with lustful, immoral lifestyles, that pollute the mind and spirit of those who view them. They glorify all manner of sinful living and, like much of today’s television programming, they either ignore God or openly defy Him.
Worst of all, the soaps are addictive and consume time. Lots of time. Time that could be used in God honoring activities that could benefit people in the real world. Staying clean of the soaps is mandatory if you want to redeem the time.
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"James in Scripture describes a ship’s rudder as an instrument capable of guiding a ship to whatever destination the captain chooses. Yet, a rudder only works when the ship is moving. In the same way, we are only able to accomplish God’s will when we are using our time profitably each day, moving forward in the known will of God.
We often have a good idea of what God wants for our lives. But the problem comes in the daily grind of living our lives and using our time in ways that move us toward accomplishing God’s bigger plan.
Someone said, you can be on the right track, but if you’re sitting still, you are still going to get run over. The person who knows God’s will is on the right track. But, the one who knows God’s will and uses their time each day to move forward in fulfilling God’s will is the one who will redeem the time.
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"Do you need motivation to redeem the time today? Try reading the book of Revelation.
Rev. 1.3 says, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” As we read through the list of God’s coming judgements at the end of the world we come away with a new sense of urgency to obey the command of Jesus to work for the night is coming when no man can work.
We’re motivated to redeem the time as we get a clearer picture of the events soon to take place at the end of the world. The book of Revelation blesses us by helping us stay focused on what is really important, that is preparing ourselves and others for judgement and eternity to follow.
The soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the last book of the Bible provides powerful motivation to redeem the time.
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