Time is a limited commodity. Everyone on the earth has 24 hours per day, 60 minutes per hour and 60 seconds per minute. Or, simply 86,400 seconds per day. If time is limited, then we need to make the best of the time we have. In last Sunday’s sermon, we talked about how to make every moment count. We want to be present in the moment. This requires margin. Here are some clippings from the sermon floor that might be useful as we steward our time as a gift from God . . .  

Being useful to God and others is a large part of what life is meant to be. It is said that “usefulness is nine-tenths availability.”  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God . . . God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions . . . we must not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”¹   

The following acronym might help us to steward our time: 

T – Treasure: Consider your time as a precious treasure from God. Cherish it and use it wisely, investing it in activities that add value to others. 

I – Intentionality: Be intentional about how you spend your time. Set clear priorities based on your spiritual value system. 

M – Mindfulness: Practice mindfulness in your daily activities. Stay present in the moment, aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions.  

E – Eternal Perspective: Keep an eternal perspective in mind as you manage your time. Remember that your actions in the present have eternal significance.  

By incorporating these principles into your approach to time management, we can cultivate deeper spiritual connections with God and others and make the most of the time we have been given on earth. 

If you want to go deeper, there’s a great little book by Charles Hummel written back in the 1960s titled, The Tyranny of the Urgent. In it, Hummel argues that there is a regular tension between things that are urgent and things that are important—and far too often, the urgent wins. 

The urgent, though less important, is prioritized, and therefore the important is put on the back burner. We see no difference between work, school or home life.  We focus on the urgent things in front of us more often than we intend, and by bedtime, the things we really care about—the important—are barely given a glance. Author Steven Covey (1932-2012) took Hummel’s concept and put it into a grid of four quadrants with the following four categories:

Quadrant 1: Urgent & Important

Quadrant 2: Not Urgent & Important  

Quadrant 3: Urgent & Not Important          

Quadrant 4: Not Important & Not Urgent 

Here’s a prayer for us as we trust God with our time: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  

(Psalm 90:12, TLB) 

In Christ’s care,