"Did you know rat poison is not all poison? To be effective, it has to have enough good tasting substance in it to attract the rat and make him want to eat it. That’s a picture of how most activities that are traps from Satan to waste our time will have a good and respectable element to them. It makes it easier to rationalize something if we can point to some small benefit we gain from it. There are many activities which are profitable in moderation, like reading the newspaper, surfing the internet or playing sports. But they become poisonous time wasters when they get out of control and the good they produce is outweighed by the time they consume.
If we are to be found good stewards of our time, we’ve got to zealously guard against allowing our schedule to be overrun with these “good” things.
So make a commitment now that you won’t take the enemy’s bait. Rejecting the good so we can experience God’s best is smart strategy for redeeming the time.
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"Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar illustrates the difference between activity and accomplishment through the processionary caterpillar. These caterpillars get their name from their habit of always following the caterpillar in front of them. They look like cars in a freight train going through the grass. But this trait can be fatal . If processionary caterpillars are placed on the brim of a flower pot so that each follows the other in a circle, they will follow one another round and round until they die of starvation and exhaustion even if the flower pot contains fresh green pine needles which are a delicacy to the processionary caterpillar.
That’s a picture of activity without accomplishment. Have you ever felt like that caterpillar at the end of your day? You ran circles, but never got your pine needles. Our nature is to substitute activity for accomplishment. Take a moment right now and ask God what he wants you to ACCOMPLISH today. Then as much as possible, reject any ACTIVITY that does not move you toward that accomplishment. Do that, and you can go to bed tonight having redeemed the time.
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"An old Chinese proverb says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
Most of us can look back on life 10 or 20 years ago and wish we had done some things differently. And while we are wise to learn from our mistakes, it’s also one of Satan’s favorite tactics to make us waste time fretting over things we can’t change. God doesn’t want us to spend time groveling and moaning over past failures.
Remember the words of Nehemiah that, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Satan would like nothing better than for you to miss even more opportunities to serve God, because you’re spending time focusing on past failures.
The way to enjoy good fruit 20 years from now is not to mope over your barren fields today, but rather to go out right now and start planting some seeds and redeeming the time.
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"One of the laws of time management is that “work will expand to fill the time allotted for it.”
For example, if we allow ourselves one hour to clean house it will take one hour. If we give ourselves an hour and a half for that same job it will take an hour and a half.
Christians can apply this principle in many ways. Let’s say you’re preparing a Sunday School lesson. Instead of making it an open ended project that could keep you up all night, get you discouraged, and make you want to quit teaching, simply give yourself a specific block of time each week, such as three hours on Thursday evening that you give that activity. Leave some flexibility, but try your best to stay within the deadline.
You’ll find that establishing a stopping time as well as a starting time will make the project less overwhelming. It will motivate you to focus and stay on task to meet your deadline. It’ll help you redeem the time.
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