Making the Most of Our Time
“I want to grow in my faith.”
“I want to lose 15 pounds.”
“I want to spend more time with family.”
Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
One thing most resolutions have in common is that they relate to time. Many already feel overwhelmed and can’t imagine adding anything else to their overpacked schedule. Perhaps that is why some give up on their goals or never even bother to set them.
In a time when many of us feel overwhelmed by everything coming at us, it’s easy to get lost trying to find a better technique or system to manage our time. But personal productivity is more than managing our to-do list.
What if the solution isn’t another productivity system, but remembering why God gave us time in the first place?
God’s Design For Our Time
One of my perennial goals has been to manage my time more effectively. This began in college, but it intensified during my time as an officer in the 82nd Airborne Division. After my active-duty service, I joined a close friend, Mike Atkinson, at his consulting firm Time and Life Management.
I’m always on the lookout for the latest book or time-management system. I’ve enjoyed classics such as How to Control Your Time and Life by Alan Lakein, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First by Steven Covey, Getting Things Done by David Allen, and Free to Focus and Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt. More recently, What’s Best Next by Matt Perman and Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Raynor have been added to the mix.
You may not share my passion for reading books on productivity. However, what we do share is the desire to make our time count because God made us that way.
The Apostle Paul writes, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). Later, in Ephesians, he writes, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16).
God created us for good works. He calls us to make the best use of our time. But what does that actually mean?
In What’s Best Next, Perman gives us an idea.
The fact that productivity is about doing good works also means that our productivity is first about others, not ourselves. A radical concern for others is to be at the heart of our productivity and at the heart of everything we do every day. Hence, being productive is not just about getting things done. It’s about being a useful person, making a contribution, and leaving things better than you found them. It’s about always being on the lookout to do good for others and knowing how. Christians are to be known by their love — not just love in the abstract but in their everyday lives. And this is substantially shown through a concern for being of benefit to others in all that we do (not just some things that we do).
Personal productivity isn’t about becoming more efficient for our own sake. It’s about taking our talents, abilities, and opportunities and making them useful for the good of others and the glory of God.
Productivity and Community Flourishing
Jonathan Edwards understood this well. In his book Charity and Its Fruits, he writes, “Christian love… disposes a person to be public-spirited. A man of a right spirit is not a man of narrow and private views, but is greatly interested and concerned for the good of the community to which he belongs, and particularly of the city or village in which he resides, and for the true welfare of the society of which he is a member.”
Perman connects Edwards’ insight to our calling as exiles:
A rightly oriented Christianity causes us to care not only about ourselves and our families but also about our communities, cities, and society generally. Edwards is simply expressing the truth of Jeremiah 29:7, where God commands his people to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” This is a restatement of the creation mandate for Israel’s time in exile. It shows that, even in exile, the creation mandate is not suspended. As Christians today, we are sojourners and exiles on the earth (1 Peter 1:1, 17; Heb. 11:13). Jeremiah 29:7 is intended to be instruction for us: even though we have no lasting city here, we are to seek the good of our cities and communities and society.
Our faithfulness in how we use our time has everything to do with the flourishing of our communities. William Wilberforce saw this clearly when he wrote, “I must confess equally boldly that my own solid hopes for the well-being of my country depend, not so much on her navies and armies, nor on the wisdom of her rulers, nor on the spirit of her people, as on the persuasion that she still contains many who love and obey the Gospel of Christ. I believe that their prayers may yet prevail.”
Scripture connects our productivity—how we make the most of our time—with the advance of the gospel. Praying for and seeking the good of our cities is essential to building prosperous communities. When Christians are productive for the good of others and the glory of God, communities are transformed. As Perman puts it, “Being productive in our lives is not separate from our task to transform the world through the light of the gospel; it is an integral part of it.”
Four Essential Steps
How do we actually do this? How do we make the most of our time for the good of others and the glory of God?
Perman offers four practical steps for what he calls “Gospel-Driven Productivity”:
- Define: Know your mission, vision, and roles. What good works has God prepared for you? A pastor mentoring young leaders. A business owner prioritizing employees. A parent discipling their children. We can’t do everything, but we can be faithful to what God has given us.
- Architect: Build rhythms, not rigid schedules. Weave your priorities into your life. The goal isn’t a perfect calendar, but making yourself available for what matters most.
- Reduce: Get rid of what doesn’t fit. Say no to good things for the sake of the best things. If God has called you to mentor someone, you may need to step back from other commitments.
- Execute: Make things happen every day. Show up consistently for what you’ve committed to. Trust God with the results, but be faithful with the process.
Jordan Raynor adds an important distinction in Redeeming Your Time: We should embrace productive busyness while ruthlessly eliminating hurry. Busyness in the service of others is good. Hurry—that frantic, anxious rushing—is not. Jesus was often busy, but never hurried. He had time for interruptions and for what the Father called him to in each moment.
These aren’t productivity hacks. They’re disciplines of love that help us steward our time to serve others and advance the gospel in our cities.
Making the Most of Our Time
God loves us and has created us for good works. His love calls us to faithfulness, to keeping the commitments we have made to ourselves and to each other. God has given us all the time we need to do what he has called us to do, but it must be stewarded well.
God has called us to make the best use of our time for our personal goals and for the flourishing of our communities. His faithfulness to accomplish his purposes through our weaknesses means that, as we seek to be faithful, we can rest and trust him with the results.
As you begin the new year, ask yourself: What step can I take to make the most of my time for the good of others and the glory of God?
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!Psalm 90:12–17 (ESV)
