What Are You Doing With Your Time?

Rich or poor, old or young, male or female, we all have the same amount of one thing—time. How we use it will largely determine how far we’ll go in life and in our relationship with our Creator.

Imagine there is a bank that deposits $86,400 into your account each morning. But there's a catch—it carries over no balance from day to day, so you lose every dollar you don't spend.

What would you do? You'd spend every cent, of course!

But each of us has just such a bank. Its name is time. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance; it allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.

You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success. The clock is running. Will you make the most of the time you've been given?

Does time matter that much?

Is time—a little or a lot—all that important? Consider the following:

To realize the value of one year,

ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of one month,

ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of one week,

ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of one day,

ask a daily-wage laborer with several children's mouths to feed.

To realize the value of one hour,

ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of one minute,

ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of one second,

ask a person who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of one millisecond,

ask a person who won a silver medal

at the Olympics.

The anonymous author of these words helps us realize just how important time is.

Jesus Christ told us to be careful how we handle our time, asking, "Are there not twelve hours in the day [the daylight portion of the 24-hour cycle]? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of the world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him" (John 11:9-10 [9] Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
[10] But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

See All...).

And the apostle Paul felt it necessary to remind the Christians in Ephesus that they ought to be "redeeming [buying back] the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
See All...; compare Colossians 4:5Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
See All...).

Time: It's what our lives are composed of. Yet in this busy modern world it has become all too easy to let time, the stuff of life, run away from us. E-mails, new software, multiple television channels, cell phones and all the other products of the technological revolution that were supposed to have simplified and enhanced the quality of our lives seem to have conspired to strip us of the time needed for the really important things of life.

What are some of the important things that should occupy our time? How does God tell us to use our time? Here's a checklist of the truly important activities that should be included in our day.

Prayer: Communicating with God

King David once told his Creator, "O God, you are my God; early I will seek You" (Psalm 63:1(A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.) O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
See All...). He also disclosed that he regularly prayed to God at least three times per day: "Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice" (Psalm 55:17Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
See All...).

The top priority in our lives should be to acknowledge our Creator and Sustainer, the One who gives us every breath of air we breathe and every morsel of food we eat. Prayer—the deep, heartfelt, regular prayer modeled by Jesus Christ Himself, and by the apostles and prophets—is one of those activities that can all too easily be pushed aside, and even out of our lives, if we allow it.

It's good to study the prayers of the great servants of God as recorded in the Bible. If we do that, we will probably be struck by one interesting feature of many of those prayers—they were long!

In fact, they were sometimes very long! Check Daniel's prayer in Daniel 9:3-19 [3] And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
[4] And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
[5] We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
[6] Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
[7] O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
[8] O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
[9] To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
[10] Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
[11] Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
[12] And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
[13] As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
[14] Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
[15] And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
[16] O LORD, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
[17] Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
[18] O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
[19] O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

See All..., and Ezra's prayer in Ezra 9:5-15 [5] And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God,
[6] And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
[7] Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
[8] And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
[9] For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
[10] And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
[11] Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.
[12] Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.
[13] And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;
[14] Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?
[15] O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.

See All..., to get a feel for how lengthy and detailed were the prayers of these men of God. Theirs weren't the "Sorry, God, I have to go now; I'll talk to you later" variety of prayer. Nor were they the "Please bless everything" type of prayer.

These biblical models of prayer depict men and women of God who talked at length, and in detail, with their Creator about their praise for Him, the needs of other servants of God and the needs of the work of God. When appropriate (and it's just about always appropriate!) they confessed their own sins and those of their community.

Their prayers weren't disrupted by phones going off and other interruptions. Theirs are the model for the kind of intense, personal prayer time so sorely needed in our modern world, but so easily neglected (or lost).

Study of the Word of God

"My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word," wrote the psalmist (Psalm 119:148Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
See All...). Here he talked about another essential use of our time—studying the Word of God, the Holy Bible. Here's another activity for which we need to make room in our busy lives, but which all too easily gets pushed aside.

Note what the author did: He didn't just read the Bible. He meditated on the Word of God. This suggests a man who read, studied and took time to think over the implications of what he read—someone who asked such penetrating questions as "What does this tell me about God and His greatness?" and "What does this tell me about how I must live my life to be in harmony with the will of my Creator?"

It's been said that meditation is to Bible study as digestion is to eating. If we eat lunch in a fast-food restaurant or a sandwich shop, we may jump up shortly after that last bite and rush off to our next activity. But on those rare occasions when we eat in a quality restaurant, our enjoyment is enhanced by taking time to savor the food and properly digest it.

So it is with this most essential of daily activities. We must study the Bible, but not in haste. As we do so, we should meditate, savoring the Word. Good digestion makes for good health, just as unhurried meditation contributes to our spiritual health. We ought not to run off and suffer indigestion. We need to take the time to digest our spiritual food too.

Fasting: Understanding our need for God

From time to time, those who have committed their lives to God and Jesus Christ find that another activity is essential to spiritual growth. It may not be our favorite activity, as it can be uncomfortable, but it is much needed.

That activity is fasting. Fasting is the practice of going without any food or drink for a period of time, usually a day, to draw closer to God. Notice Jesus Christ's words to His disciples: "Moreover, when you fast . . . But you, when you fast . . ." (Matthew 6:16Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
See All..., 17). Note that He didn't say, "If you fast . . ." He said, "When you fast," clearly expressing His expectation that those who would follow Him would indeed fast from time to time.

But how easy it is to let the needed activity of fasting go by the board! There's always some commitment, some activity, that prevents us from fasting—or at least so it seems. It requires some determination to set aside a day for fasting and extra prayer. Yet when we do that, this short-term exercise in "afflicting our souls" (to use another biblical term for it) pays rich dividends in spiritual growth and answered prayer.

Another priority: Family time

In speaking of the kind of fast that God expects, the prophet Isaiah was inspired to declare that we should not "hide" ourselves from our own families (Isaiah 58:7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
See All...). This leads us to perhaps the most important use of our time as far as other human beings are concerned. We must spend adequate quality time with our families.

According to a recent survey done in Britain, more than 90 percent of children want more time with their fathers. Three times as many children said that caring, rather than breadwinning, is their father's most important job.

The same survey indicated that 9 out of 10 girls would rather the father of their children be caring than rich, and 88 percent of the boys said they wanted to be dads when they grew up. Over half of those children surveyed indicated they felt parenthood should be taught in schools.

In a world all too often obsessed with making money, these results tell us something we should know: The emotional well-being of our families should be given a higher priority than making that extra dollar (or euro, or pound). Time spent with the family is an excellent investment.

The Bible exhorts fathers, "Provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
See All..., King James Version). Husbands are exhorted to "dwell with [their wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered" (1 Peter 3:7Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
See All...).

Dwelling with one's spouse and nurturing and admonishing our children are activities that require time. They can't be rushed. Are we setting aside adequate time to spend with our loved ones?

We mustn't neglect other important uses of our time. When it comes to family, we must also maintain the home with work around the house and chores. And our regular job will probably take up the single biggest portion of our time. We should also give adequate time to education to prepare ourselves for the future and that we might better provide for our families.

Time to relax and recharge

Finally, there is one more critical use of time that may seem paradoxical after what you've read so far. It's time for relaxation—down time, time to employ a real change of pace that rests and rejuvenates us. We should do this on a regular basis, since burnout helps no one. If we're going to be productive during our time of work, we also need to enjoy some time to relax and unwind.

Solomon, in his wisdom, wrote that there is a time to laugh and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
See All...), as well as a time to work hard and push oneself. For this reason most employers give their employees much-needed vacation time. It is time well-earned, and it needs to be used, if only to maintain our productivity in the times when we do work.

I recall the comment made by the wife of a colleague of mine when I was teaching at a small college in Texas. She commented about her husband that when they went away on vacation, it took him an entire day just to relax and unwind. Sadly, we can often be too intense about our work and find it hard to remove our foot from that accelerator of life, to slow down. At times it may take longer than a day for one truly under stress to recuperate or adjust to a change of pace.

Those who are involved in creative work know the need for relaxation and recreation. Trying to force creativity out of oneself rarely works. That essential creative spark usually kindles itself at unexpected moments, when we are relaxed and not feeling pressure. Perhaps this is why the Gospels record the fact that Jesus Christ at times felt a need to get away from the crowds and be alone. It's the quiet, unhurried time that stimulates our creativity.

Time: It's the essence of life. If we use it wisely, we can become better, more productive, more God-fearing people. We can love others more effectively. We can remember to play a little and to stay young at heart. And we can learn the keys to eternal life as described in the holy Word of God. GN