Editor’s Note: You can read the first article in this series here.
Stewarding our time wisely is a challenge for people of all ages and stages of life. It can be easy to fall into a pattern of wasting our time when we have too much of it on our hands. On the other hand, we can fall into living reactively when we’re in a particularly busy season of life. Regardless of where we fall on the spectrum, if we’re not intentional with how we’re spending our time, we may end up spending it foolishly. As Christians, we want to live wisely to honor the Lord.
In our last article, we discussed how this topic is particularly relevant for parents of young children. For those of us who fall in this category, we often feel like we’re barely keeping our heads above water. Over the course of the next few articles, we’ll be exploring how intentionally stewarding our time is worth the effort.
Wisely Stewarding Our Time Honors God
At the outset, someone might ask the question: does God really care how we use our time? To answer that, we should start by looking at the character and attributes of God, His design for man, and the concept of stewardship.
Order vs. Chaos
Looking at Genesis, the first thing to point out is that God created time. “In the beginning” – is the very first phrase of the Bible. “The beginning” speaks to the start of time. The trinity existed before that in eternity past, but at the start of creation, God created time and the heavens and earth. Time is orderly and moves forward in a systematic way, because that is how God created it.
Continuing through the creation account, we see God create order and structure in the universe. He creates organization through separation: heaven and earth, land and sea, and day and night. We see incredible structure in the detailed design of plants, animals, humans, etc… that could never come about by accident. There is intentionality in everything God does.
From Genesis, we clearly see that God is a God of order, not chaos. Paul tells us as much in 1 Corinthians when talking about having orderly worship services:
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
(1 Cor 14:33) (Note: the word for “confusion” can mean “disorder” in Greek.)
God clearly cares about order and intentionality. We honor God and imitate him when we bring order to the chaos of family life. Next, we should look at God’s design for man.
Dominion
God created man to have dominion over his creation.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Gen 1:28
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Gen 2:15
God didn’t create Adam to just lounge around in the garden, eat fruit, and do whatever he wanted based on his passing whims. He created Adam to use his time to be productive. He created man to intentionally have dominion over the earth. God has an expectation that we will manage our time to be productive. Work is good and we should do our work diligently to the Lord. That includes a vocational job, but that also includes work in the home. Productive work in the station that God has you should be a big part of how you spend your time. We should be working hard as if the Lord is our boss.
I would also argue that we should ensure that we are having dominion over our time and not letting time have dominion over us through passive living. We should be productive for the Lord at work, in caring for our home, with our children, in our relationships, in serving the church, etc.
However, like we discussed in the intro, he hasn’t given us a concrete schedule in Scripture showing us exactly how we should manage our time down to the minute. We have freedom, but we should be good stewards as we seek to honor God with our time. What does it mean to be a steward?
Stewardship
Stewardship is caring for or managing what belongs to someone else. In this case, we’re talking about stewarding or managing the time that God has given to us. We don’t want to waste what God has given us. The concept of stewardship helps guide us in situations where we have freedom in Christ, such as how we use our time.
In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells the parable of the talents. In this parable, we see the concept of stewardship on full display.
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
The master gave his property to his servants and he rewarded them or punished them based on their stewardship of it. The master represents God. The one who completely squandered the master’s resources was punished and he represents an unbeliever. The faithful servants who were rewarded based on the outcome of their wise stewardship represent believers who wisely manage what God has entrusted to them.
Time is a resource that has been given to us by God that he wants us to steward wisely. Scripture is clear that every person has been given a fixed amount of time on earth.
Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble…Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.
Job 14:1, 5
We’re exhorted to be wise by considering the limited amount of time we’ve been given:
For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Ps 90:9-10
The first step is realizing that we only have a fixed number of opportunities in this life. How will we use the time that God has given us? Paul tells us this:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Eph 5:15-16
It’s wise to be intentional about using our time to the best of our ability to honor God. (In further verses, Paul contrasts wisely using your time to understand the will of God with living in drunken pleasure-seeking.) The Greek word Paul uses for “time” is not chronos which is clock time, but kairon which speaks of a fixed, measured, or allotted season.
Yes, don’t waste your minutes and hours being unproductive, but it’s deeper than that. You have a fixed amount of time that God has allotted for your life. Are you stewarding it wisely? Are you living a life with biblical priorities?
You can be good at time management and live productively on an hour-by-hour basis. However, if you don’t have the right biblical priorities, you could be still living unwisely. In light of this, I would argue that God does care about how we steward our time and we should use it to honor him.
In the next article of this series, we’ll look at how wisely stewarding our time can bless our families.
