Wasting Time

(1Thessalonians 2:1 ISV)  For you yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a waste of time.

One advantage of being older is having the privilege of learning from one’s past. As a result I am proud to say that one of the most valuable lessons I learned (in my eighty plus years), is time management. However, in those same eighty plus years I also learned that wasting time has grown to epidemic proportions with seemingly no indication of slowing down anytime soon.

If everything good happens in the framework of time then why is it so easy for one to waste it? The seven biblical reasons for wasting time are:

1.     Dead works…your work and not God’s work.
2.     Worry…worry pulls you away from your fellowship with God. Matthew 6:25-26.   
3.     Reasoning…trying to figure out the plan of God.
4.     Guilt…Romans 8:1
5.     Anger… Life is not fair but God is…so give it to Him.
6.     Trying to fix someone who does not want to be fixed 
7.     Dread…It is time for one to take dominion…not dread it.

Our text actually had to do with the apostles wondering if they were wasting their time by going to the Thessalonians. Since wasting time is a learned behavior then getting the most out of one’s time must also be a learned behavior.

Time is a resource like money and that is why we use the term, “spending time.” It does not matter how busy one is…it only matters if one accomplishes something in their busyness. As a matter of fact busyness is actually an attack from Satan that causes one to waste the time that God has given to them.

The older I get the more I appreciate the simple lessons I learned while growing up on the farm. Most farmers (back in my days), had little to no money, therefore they considered their time to be their greatest asset.

On our farm we not only had a dairy but we also did truck farming. We started milking cows at four A.M and again at four P.M. Between those hours we grew all kinds of vegetables and melons to sell at the farmers market and at a few grocery stores. We also bailed hay and made silage for the milk cows. When the hay bailing and the truck farming season was over we would clear land, build new fences, repair broken farm implements and plow the land for spring planting.

Since we considered our time to be our greatest asset we learned to spend it wisely.  As a matter of fact, I do not recall any of us having the time to engage in any of the seven biblical reasons for wasting time that I mentioned in the above paragraph.

Since time is so important I wonder if we will have to give an account to the Lord on how we used it…I wonder.

Father,

Help us to be better stewards of the most precious thing that You have given to each of us…time. Help us to spend our time wisely in order to produce thirty, sixty and one hundred fold return back to You. Our desire is to be good stewards worthy of Your trust.

Amen