"A hard core pessimist once said, “Things are going to get worse, before they get even worse.”
It seems some people are skeptical about just about everything, including the value of learning good time management. They may not even believe it is possible to consistently spend time on the basis of goals and priorities instead of whims and appetites. ""That stuff sounds nice in theory"" they say, ""but it just doesn't work.""
But the truth is, when we do things God's way, God will help it to work. Managing your time really means managing your life. If you believe the Bible, you must believe God has a purpose and plan for every day of your life. He wants you to detect that purpose and bring that plan to completion.
Biblical time management is not only possible, but it is absolutely necessary if you want God's best for your life and if you want to redeem the time.
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"Two men were remodeling an old office building when they opened a closet to remove a filing cabinet. To their shock they discovered a skeleton hidden behind the cabinet. Suspecting foul play, they called the police who promptly began an investigation. The next day, the curious workers called the police again to see who it was they had found. “Yes, we have an ID” said the detective. “It was the 1957 national hide and seek champion”.
Well, this skeleton in the closet was someone who just didn’t know when to quit! If we’re not careful we can make the same mistake. Learning to leave well enough alone is a good time management skill. We often waste time trying to bring things to perfection that simply don’t need to be brought to perfection. While your letters shouldn’t have obvious grammar mistakes or misspellings, 95% of our letters would be just fine with a single review as opposed to going over them again and again striving for perfection.
The Bible says God is looking for people with a perfect heart, not perfect performance. Knowing when perfection matters and when it doesn’t will help us redeem the time.
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"If you knew you were going to die six months from today how would you spend your time this week?
The answer to that question can be very revealing about what is really important to us and what we should be doing right now.
The fact is we don’t know if we have six months, six days or even six minutes to live. If we want to be fully effective servants of God and experience His richest blessing we should be using each moment of our time to its fullest potential.
Perhaps you think of lost loved ones when you consider the six month question. If you have unsaved relatives your concern for them should be a top priority. But what have you actually done in the past year to try to introduce them to Christ?
Schedule a time this week to do the thing you would do if you had only six months to live and you will redeem the time.
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"Everyone has a great idea in the shower. The problem is most of us never hang on to that idea long enough to step out, dry off, and write it down so we can do something about it.
People who achieve great things for the Lord are people who consistently act upon their best ideas. They have a system for recording ideas, prioritizing them, and acting on the ones that show the most promise.
God desires to speak to us all day long. If you are a Christian you’re His child and He desires to show you the best path to take each day. If you shower in the morning, make it a habit to sing or pray while you wash up. Ask God for direction in spending your time that day. When the answer comes, hang on to it till you can write it down and put it into action so you’ll redeem the time.
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