God's Contradiction of Time Management

blonde woman looking at phone to plan time — Photo by Tim Mossholder

AS I SAT AT BREAKFAST, thanking God for His many blessings through the years, I thought about my last post about “A Waste of Time.” In spite of knowing how God is continually present in our everyday lives, how many times did I wrestle with my time management when it came to working in a concentrated prayer time with God each day? Maybe that happens to you too. “I have so much to do today I really can’t afford to spend time reading the Bible. Maybe I can work it in later,” etc, etc.

When I think about my last post however, I have to laugh. God isn’t interested in how quickly we can accomplish everything on our to-do list. His priority is my spending time in relationship with Him, in seeking Him for the answers, in probing the depths of His Word to learn more about Him, in finding His heart for others, in discovering what changes He wants to make in me.

If the process is more important than the outcome, then time management becomes an irony of our own limited and maybe warped human perspective. If God is in control, then He can manage our time much more effectively than we can.

In Matthew 6:25, Jesus tells us not to “worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” Jesus has promised to take care of us so why do we try to manage it by ourselves?

My Time Management Strategy vs. God’s

So what’s really behind my reluctance to prioritize time with God over getting going with my day?

Is it a control issue? Is it because I think I can manage my day better than God can? Is it the tyranny of the urgent? The hours seem too short and the list too long, and those little urgent details just have to get done! Do I let the details of my list rule over me instead of letting God guide me through the day?

Most important, if I’m taking control of my day without asking God to come along beside me, am I missing something important He wants me to do that day? A word of encouragement for myself or others? An opportunity to serve and honor Him? Or perhaps the scripture He gives me in the morning will give me the very tools I need to handle a certain situation later on?

I love seeing David’s heart in Psalm 5:3 when he describes the way he expectantly starts his day. “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3).

Right Word at the Right Time

During the pandemic I had an important zoom interview scheduled for a secular marriage conference where I was one of just a few Christians speaking. It was a rare opportunity to present a Christian perspective to an audience with very mixed religious backgrounds. Although I spent quite a bit of time preparing, I was still nervous about how to weave a Christian message into my talk without it being intrusive.

That morning, with a challenging day ahead, I sat on the couch to spend time with God in prayer. As I took out my Bible to continue reading in Isaiah, I “just happened” to come to Isaiah 51:16, where God says to Isaiah, “I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand— I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth.”

Goose bumps ran up and down my arms as I read the words again.

With 66 books in the Bible, God “just happened” to pop before me the very words of assurance I needed to let me know that He, the God of creation, would put His words in my mouth, and cover me with His presence. Later that day during the interview, the host, although not a Christian herself, lead me into the very line of questions that allowed me to present the hope of Jesus to an audience that rarely heard God’s word. His words indeed were in my mouth.

Spending time with God that morning before the Conference gave me exactly what I needed to meet the challenges of that day and a heart of “expectancy” as I waited to see exactly how He would intervene and fulfill His promise.

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Are you fascinated like I am by the concept of time as it pertains to God’s timing, our timing, and how it all fits together? If so, you might enjoy my suspense novel, Pieces of Dark, Pieces of Light, in which the protagonist’s journey back in time dramatically reveals how the decisions we make today can impact the future in much greater ways than we could ever imagine.