We All Need Better Time Management

By Brendan Pratt

More than likely, we all could use better time management in our life. The world has ways it teaches people to make most of their time. Most the time, the teachers of time management show you how to have more time for yourself. Whether it is at work or in your personal life where you just feel like you have no time, these teachers want to help you. As Christians, is it our goal to have more time for us?

The text above Paul’s teaching to the church in Ephesus is calling them to look carefully how they walk. They are to walk as wise and not unwise. It's the same call to us today to walk wisely and not unwisely. How do we know what is wise or what is unwise? We know when we know the Word of God that tells us how to walk wisely in this world. We know what is good and what is evil.

The next call to them is to make the use of the time because the days are evil. As the days were evil in the church of Ephesus, the days are evil today. It is for this reason we are to make most of the time. If this is true, then our time management as believers is motivated by this fact that the days are evil. So let’s look at what we could be doing if we are making the most of the time.

If we are making most of the time, we can grow in our relationship with the Lord and know Him deeply. If we are learning how to be more productive in the workplace, at home, and with our day to day living, we can spend more time with the Lord. We read stories of men and women who would spend multiple hours a day with the Lord in prayer. That does not sound productive in a worldly sense, but time with God is time well spent. I don’t think anyone regrets spending too much time with God.

If we have more time, we can be proactive in sharing the gospel with those around us. I think for every Christian, the goal is sharing the gospel with the people in our life. It is a broad goal that we need to breakdown, because it seems unrealistic to share the gospel with every person we run into in our day to day life. We know there are people in our life that do not know Jesus as Lord, and do we have the time to share the good news with them? Can our schedule be interrupted? If we are too busy though that we are not making this a priority, this needs to change in our life.

If we are making most of the time, then we are prioritizing time with other fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. As Christians, we are all part of the universal church, but we should also be part of the local church. We love one another, serve one another, carry one another’s burdens, but how do we do that if we do not have time to spend with other believers? Again, this should not be the reality in any Christian’s life. The days are evil, and none of us are to do this Christian life on our own. We live in community with other brothers and sisters in Christ helping one another to grow more like Jesus.

Reading or listening how to be more productive in your life is not wrong. Understand as a believer why you should be making most of the time and what you should do with that extra time.