Your Time Belongs To God
“Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied…It is the unexpected visitor (when he looked forward to a quiet evening), or the friend’s talkative wife (turning up when he looked forward to a tête-à-tête with the friend), that throw him out of gear…They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own’” (The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, 2001, p111-112, originally published in 1942 emphasis mine).
To be productive, you must say yes to some things and no to others. When you say yes to one thing, you’re saying no to something else. So plan your yes’s with wisdom.
But this is not because your time is your own. You should never guard your time for you. Your time belongs to God.
Here is a litmus test. Do you feel personally wronged when someone takes advantage of your time? If so, you foolishly believe your time is yours. Confess that sin and ask God to change you.
Consider how Christ handled the time He was given. Sometimes He went to pray by Himself. Or He chose to go to one place instead of another. Sometimes He preached to one group instead of another. Jesus needed to make choices. But He didn’t make those choices for Himself. He knew His mission and He focused His time toward that mission.
And part of everyone’s mission is God interrupting you with things you might think are a waste of time.
What do you think?
Joseph
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Disclaimer: I'm not your pastor, lawyer, accountant, economist, doctor. I’m a regular guy who wants the freedom to love and enjoy God, my wife, my kids, and my work. And I believe pursuing that freedom will make it easier for others to do the same. This isn’t professional advice. If you need professional advice, talk to a professional.
Thank for sharing this. Natalie has set an excellent example in my own life to the power of a wise and committed “yes”. Her’s is a “yes, Lord” heart, which changes worldly time into heavenly time. Making eye contact for a full 2 seconds can say more than 2 hours of fuming at your husband for being late again, or 2 minutes of harping on your kid for being in sloth mode. In a “put/pay/protect yourself first” state of heart, anger is as close as the next 30 second stop light or elderly man paying with a check. You can’t feel injury or insult when ‘your time’ is spent in prayer with the God of the universe.
“The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression.”
Proverbs 19:11 NKJV