Purpose Driven Time

We’ve all complained about it…time, or the lack thereof. We’ve all said things like; “There’s just not enough hours in the day.” We often accuse time of being an enemy to our success. “If I just had a few more hours in the day, I could ________________.” Fill in the blank with whatever efforts you never seem to accomplish…reading the Bible, praying, teaching a Bible Study, volunteering in your community, launching a new ministry, taking your children on a memory-making adventure, taking your wife on a date, etc.… 

The apostle Paul recognized the struggle we all have with time and addressed it in Colossians 4:5. 

Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. – Colossians 4:5 KJV

Thayers’ Bible Dictionary defines the phrase “redeeming the time” as, “to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.” Time and opportunity go hand in hand. Every day on the calendar is a day full of opportunities. But will how we prioritize our time allow us to take advantage of the opportunities we have been given? It all comes down to how we manage our time…how we systematically and proactively structure the hours within our days. 

Paul instructs the church to “make wise and sacred use of” our opportunities…our time. In other words, manage your time with wisdom…not with a negative mindset of how little of it you think you have. Make time an asset, not a liability. Let time help you fulfill your God-given purpose. Time is to be a tool we use to accomplish things in our lives, not a perceived enemy for why we don’t. God gave us time, just as He gave us our purpose. We must learn to use our time wisely so we can accomplish His purpose for our lives. 

Consider the application of wisdom, which we know to be “sound judgment in decision making.” How much effort do you put into deciding how your time gets allocated? Or do you find yourself in total reaction mode? The concept of sound judgment implies there will be decisions to make. You, and only you, can decide how you spend your time. 

This definition also admonishes us to treat time as something sacred… something created by God that is to be held in honor. God wants us to be good stewards of our time, not just our money. Have you ever considered time to be sacred? Do you treat time as a gift from God, or as a necessary evil to battle daily? 

People spend millions of dollars every year trying to learn how to better manage their time. A quick search on Amazon reveals the most popular books on time management. Titles such as To-Do List Formula, Getting Things Done, The Four-Hour Work Week, Deep Work, When, The Check-List Manifesto, and many other books strive to inspire the world to manage time like many of the world’s most successful people. But you can read every available book on time management and still not be a wise steward of your time. It’s no different than reading the Bible from cover to cover and still not being a true disciple. It all comes down to application; how you apply what you have read. 

Here’s the brutal truth. Success is not created by those who create more hours in their day. Success can happen when we make wiser use of our time. 

Time management can also be described as “distraction management”. Cell phones, emails and notifications all produce a constant barrage of distractions. Try filtering every ping and ring through the filter of wisdom by asking yourself, “If I look at this, will it derail my current focus?” If the answer is yes, then don’t look at your phone. It can wait. 

Time management can be considered the ultimate test of self-discipline. Forcing yourself to stay focused on the task at hand can be the biggest victory of your day. Furthermore, scheduling specific time slots on your calendar for necessary tasks looks great on your calendar app. But self-discipline is what makes that activity happen. Just because you schedule it doesn’t mean it gets done. Self-discipline causes it to get done. 

Church leadership podcaster, Carey Neiuwhof, describes how he transitioned from a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants leader to a proactive and scheduled leader when he began scheduling items of high importance in the hours of his day that he had the most energy. If 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. tend to be your most energetic time slots, then schedule your most focus-oriented tasks in those hours. Do not waste valuable energy reading through unnecessary emails and doing less-than-important tasks when you have the energy to accomplish really big things. Save those tasks for when your energy begins to wane. Then, allow self-discipline to motivate you to accomplish them. 

How we manage our time will determine how much of our God-given purpose we fulfill. Give your time purpose by proactively managing it with planning and self-discipline. Remember, time is a tool, not your enemy.