This is the third of a six-part blog series on “obstacles to obedience,” reasons we tell God, “No.” This comes to you courtesy of Ryan Doherty, the Summit’s North Durham campus pastor. Be sure to check out the rest of the series here: Introduction, Obstacle 1 (Not Recognizing the Call), Obstacle 3 (Earthly Treasures), Obstacle 4 (Safety), & Obstacle 5 (Lack of Training).
We say we are too busy. We think we are too busy. We are too busy. Gordon McDonald points out, “The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. We are naively inclined to believe that the most publicly active person is the most privately spiritual.” In the midst of working in a cotton mill twelve hours a day, six days a week, Mary Slessor, remembering David Livingstone’s brave adventures in Central Africa, thought to herself, “There has to be more to my life. I don’t care where I go as long as I go forward.” The Lord soon answered her prayer and sent her to Calabar.
If we are too busy to serve God and listen to him, then we are simply too busy. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “We must be ready to be interrupted by God. For God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans.” Regarding packed schedules and busyness, Corrie Ten Boom encouraged, “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.”
Jesus clearly understood the importance of using his time wisely, and he measured his use of time against his God-given mission: “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.” Jesus organized his time around his priorities—serving the Father and saving people. He identified with us as he shared our limitations—including time limitations!—but showed us how to manage them effectively.
Francis Asbury managed his time so well that at the end of his life, he was completely exhausted from spending his time traveling by horseback over 100,000 miles to spread the gospel, enduring many hardships during the American War of Independence. He shared, “My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed be the Lord.” For where our priorities are, there our time will be.
Jonathan Goforth, a missionary to China, was convinced the best way to use our time is to “seek each day to do or say something to further Christianity among the lost.” But to draw people to Christ, as George Müeller noted, “The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.” Müller often prayed, “Lord, let me be a light to those around me, and help me to find a way to reach the orphans before it’s too late.” He used his time intentionally, obediently responding to the Lord’s prompting to run an orphanage and take full responsibility for the care of over 10,000 orphans.
By integrating the word of God into our day to day living, as we create space in our schedules to meet with and hear from God, our passion for God and for sharing his gospel will grow. When we love something enough to have it fill our free time, then our passion for obeying God will grow. And that can only happen when we realize the full impact of what he has done for us.
Moses told us to “number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Paul reminds us, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time” (Col 4:5). Reflecting on these passages C.T. Studd wrote, “We are so busy with a million pursuits that we don’t even notice the most important things. We have been waiting far too long for someone else to get the job done. The time for waiting has past.”
On finishing well and spending our time on earth wisely, America’s first foreign missionary, Adoniram Judson said, “I am not tired of my work, nor am I tired of the world; yet when Christ calls me home, I shall go with gladness.” Around the same time, but scattered around the Pacific Ocean, John Williams reflected, “I feel still that the work of Christians is the greatest, noblest and sublimest to which the energies of the human mind can be devoted. I think, friends that no labor we can bestow, no sacrifice we can make, no journeys that we can undertake, are too great to be undertaken for the glorious purpose of illuminating the dark world with the light of the glorious gospel.”
What legacy are you leaving? Where are you investing your time? Is the amount of time spent following Jesus proportionate to the quality of the relationship you want to have with him?
Does your schedule show that God is a priority in your life? Where can you create more margin in your life to listen to God and serve him?
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