TIME
Someone may
ask, “But why should I rise early?” To remain too long in bed is a waste of
time. Wasting time is unbecoming of a saint who is bought by the precious blood
of Jesus. His time and all he has is to be used for the Lord. If we sleep more
than is necessary for the refreshment of the body, it is wasting time the Lord
has entrusted us to be used for His glory, for our own benefit, and for the benefit
of the saints and unbelievers around us… Anyone who spends one, two, three
hours in prayer and meditation before breakfast will soon discover the
beneficial effect early rising has on the outward and inward man.
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
118. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.
If there are
any regrets in Heaven, they will only be that we did not use our earthly time
more for the glory of God and for growth in His grace. If this is so, this may
be Heaven’s only similarity with hell, which will be filled with agonizing
laments over time so foolishly squandered.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 139, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Time appears
to be so plentiful that losing much of it seems inconsequential. But money is
easily wasted as well. And if people threw away their money as thoughtlessly as
they throw away their time, we would think them insane. Yet time is infinitely
more precious than money because money can’t buy time.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 137-138, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
The more scarce something is, the more valuable it is. Gold and
diamonds would be worthless if you could pick them up like pebbles on the side
of the road. Time would not be so precious if we never died. But since we are never
more than a breath away from eternity, the way we use our time has eternal
significance.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 134, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
I still find
each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want
to take, all the books I want to read, all the friends I want to see. Our time
is too short for pettiness, angry words, wounded feelings, crushed
souls. Perhaps the measure of life is not in its length, but in its love.
John Burroughs
To waste time
is to squander a gift from God.
John Blanchard
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical Wisdom
for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 50
There is
nothing which puts a more serious frame into a man’s spirit than to know the
worth of his time.
Thomas Brooks
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical Wisdom
for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 50
Time in
itself is really not the problem, but people who use it are. People who excuse
their failures by saying, “I don’t have time” really are admitting to
mismanagement of time.
Ted W. Engstrom
The Making of a Christian Leader, Zondervan,
1976, p. 108. www.zondervan.com.
How often we
hear, “I wish I knew how to manage my time better.” Rarely do we hear, “I wish
I knew how to manage myself better,” but that’s really what it comes down to.
Ted W. Engstrom
The Making of a Christian Leader, Zondervan,
1976, p. 101. www.zondervan.com.
You do not
“spend” time with God. You “invest” it. Time alone with Him can be one of the
greatest time savers of your life. It is in your time alone with the Lord that
you can surrender the burden and the anxiety of the load to Him (Philippians
4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:7). You can also find the perspective to be delivered from the
truly nonessential things that often seem important. You can find new energy
and ideas as you “commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established
(Proverbs 16:3).
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p.
114-115.
Time,
once spent, cannot be regained.
Ron Gleason
To the Young Pastor, Tabletalk, May 2008, p.
70, Used by Permission.
We master our
minutes or we become slaves to them; we use time, or time uses us.
William A. Ward
God gave you
a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say, “Thank you?”
William A. Ward
O spend your time as you would hear of it in the Judgment!
Richard Baxter
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 155.
Accept the
cost of good deeds in time, thought, and effort. But remember that
opportunities for doing good are not interruptions in God’s plan for us, but
part of that plan. We always have time to do what God wants us to do.
Jerry Bridges
The Practice of Godliness, NavPress, 1996, p.
199. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved.
Think about
people who find themselves in religious ruts. They discover a number of things
about themselves. They will find that they are getting older but not getting
any holier. Time is their enemy, not their friend. The time they trusted and
looked to is betraying them, for they often said to themselves,
“The passing of time will help me. I know some good old saints, so as I get
older I'll get holier and better. Time will help me, purify me and revive me.”
They said that the year before last, but they were not helped any last year.
Time betrayed them. They were not any better last year than they had been the
year before.
A.W. Tozer
Rut, Rot or Revival, Christianity Today, v.
38, n. 3
How
completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.
Eternal years lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and
those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and
endless years. God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must
work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves. For those
out of Christ, time is a devouring beast.
A.W. Tozer
Time is given
us to use in view of eternity.
Author Unknown
Lord,
teach me so to conceive time as an unrepeatable gift that I might live my life
serenely with Your values in mind so that my life is
lived to the full.
Melvin Tinker
Paraphrase of Psalm 90:12, Wisdom to Live By,
Christian Focus Publications, 1998, p. 134. Used by Permission.
If
there is no God, then there is no real significance to our lives, time simply
becomes something to be filled and got through.
Melvin Tinker
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus
Publications, 1998, p. 126. Used by Permission.
Here
is the Son of God, who in less than three years achieved far more than kings
and generals had ever achieved in a thousand years, taking time out. Why? Well,
He knew His needs and limitations – even He couldn’t work twenty-four hours a
day seven days a week – and neither can we. But also He could have the
confidence to do this because of His quiet, serene knowledge that His time was
in His Father’s hands, that He wasn’t going to change
the world by one endless round of activity, but by doing things in God’s time
in God’s way.
Melvin Tinker
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus
Publications, 1998, p. 132-133. Used by Permission.
Place a high
value upon your time; be more careful of not losing it than you would of losing
your money. Do not let worthless recreations, idle take, unprofitable company,
or sleep rob you of your precious time. Be more careful to escape that person,
action or course of life that would rob you of your time than you would be to
escape thieves and robbers.
Richard Baxter
The
New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, ed. Mark Water, 2000, Baker, p. 1061.
A leader will
seldom say, “I don’t have the time.” Such an excuse is usually the refuge of a
small-minded and inefficient person. Each of us has the time to do the whole
will of God for our lives.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 94.
As in the
parable of the pounds (minas in the NIV; Luke 19:12-27), where each servant was
given the same amount of money, we each have been given the same amount of
time. But few of us use it so wisely as to produce a tenfold return. The
parable recognizes different abilities; the servant with less capacity but
equal faithfulness received the same reward. We are not responsible for our
endowments or natural abilities but we are responsible for the strategic use of
time.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 94.
Time lost can
never be retrieved. Time cannot be hoarded, only spent well.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 94.
Procrastination,
the thief of time, is one of the devil’s most potent weapons for defrauding us
of eternal heritage. The habit of “putting off” is fatal to spiritual
leadership. Its power resides in our natural reluctance to come to grips with
important decisions. Making decisions, and acting on them, always requires
moral energy. But the passing of time never makes action easier; quite the
opposite. Most decisions are more difficult a day later, and you may also lose
an advantage by such delay. The nettle will never be easier to grasp than now.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 98.
Time itself
is one more name for death.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Heaven: Your Real Home, Zondervan, www.Zondervan.com, 1995, p. 100. Used
by Permission.
People who
don’t believe in God consider time an adversary. For them, the ticking of the
second hand sounds like the stalking of an enemy. Each minute move them toward
death. And everyone, whether rich or poor, tries to grab the hour hand and
shove it backward.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Heaven: Your Real Home, Zondervan, www.Zondervan.com, 1995, p. 100. Used by
Permission.
I think one
of the cant phrases of our day is the familiar one by which we express our
permanent want of time. We repeat it so often that by the very repetition we
have deceived ourselves into believing it. It
is never the supremely busy men who have no time. So compact and systematic
is the regulation of their day that whenever you make a demand on them, they
seem to find additional corners to offer for unselfish service. I confess as a
minister, that the men to whom I most hopefully look for additional service are
the busiest men.
J.H. Jowett
Quoted
in: Spiritual Leadership, Oswald Sanders, Moody
Publishers, 1967, p. 94
The present
is the only time in which any duty may be done or grace received.
C.S. Lewis
Quoted
in: Bill Thrasher, A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p.
184.
We have only
the time allotted by God, and none of us knows when it will run out. Every
Christian life runs by His divine timetable and against His divine clock. We do
not know how long He will hold open the door of a given opportunity or of our
entire time of service. “Be careful how you walk,” Paul counsels, “not as
unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are
evil” (Eph. 5:16). God gives us many things without limit – His love, His
grace, and many others. But His gift of time is strictly measured.
John
MacArthur
2 Timothy, Moody, 1995, p. 196.
Redeem the
time: much of your progress depends on this. Be men of “method and punctuality”;
waste no moments; have always something to do, and do
it use up the little spaces of life, the little intervals between engagements.
Horatius Bonar
Follow
the Lamb, 1861.
Be punctual and regular in all duties
and engagements. Keep no man waiting. Be honest as to time, both with
yourselves and others, lest you get into a state of chronic flurry and excitement;
so destructive of peace and progress; so grieving to the Spirit, whose very
nature is calmness and rest.
Horatius Bonar
Follow
the Lamb, 1861.