For those of you
reading this book who are Christian, or at
least curious about a Christian perspective, I
want to share what I believe God has revealed
to me about His goals for time management…
In Matthew 22: 36–40, Jesus gives instruction
on which commandments should be our focus:
“Teacher, which is the greatest
commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your
mind.” This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the
Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments.”
Jesus is the expert on how to live a life
aligned with God, so His explanation of where
to focus must be great advice. But if you’re
anything like me, you’re probably wondering,
“So what does this mean that I actually have
to do?”
I’m sure millions of people have talked about
the practical application of these verses, so
I don’t claim to have the exhaustive answer to
that question. However, after spending a
couple of years conversing with God on the
topic, I came to the conclusion that there are
three goals for time management that will best
allow you to fulfill God’s two greatest
commandments, to love God and your neighbor
and to live out His best for you. We’ll fully
unpack these in each of the three sections of
this book. But in this chapter, we’ll do a
quick overview of what I believe are the three
right goals for divine time management:
• Trust in God
at the center
• Love for your true
identity
• Alignment with God
We don’t need to live in a self-reliant
universe where we stress about doing
everything right, and then pray to ask God to
bless our plans. As children of the Most High
God, we have the right to live in a
God-Centered universe. We can banish
fear-based control. We can focus on love and
alignment. And we can be free to choose God’s
best.
It’s time to stop living below the line of our
privilege.
Right
Aim: Trust in God at the Center
There is a time and a place for building
self-discipline, for wise decisions, and for
effective tactics. But all of these things
should not be about us ensuring that our needs
and wants are met through our own efforts.
Instead, all of these strategies should free
up our time so that we have enough space in
our lives to love God, hear His voice, and
stay connected with Him. Then from that place
of greater intimacy with God, we can know what
He wants us to do and how to do it. We can
also receive all of the blessings God has for
us.
Focusing on trusting God with all of our time
and time management decisions opens up space
for prayer and for rest. When we genuinely
seek His will, God typically asks us to do
less than we think we need to do and to rely
on Him more. This moves us from a place of
pride around how great we are at managing our
time, and from fear when something doesn’t go
as it “should” to a place of humble confidence
in God that everything is working out for the
best. And trust in God frees us up to love
people enough to let go — Sometimes meaning
letting go of our schedules to be with them,
and sometimes meaning letting go of a
compulsion to help others that isn’t from the
Lord.
Putting trust in God at the center of your
time management allows you to enter into God’s
best…
Right
Aim: Alignment with God
Putting trust in God at the center of your
time management while knowing, loving, and
living out your true identity will naturally
put you in a better position to invest your
time well. From this position of strength, you
have the ability to choose to stay in
alignment with God. Alignment means being in
the Lord’s will on a big-picture level and
walking in faithful obedience to what you
believe God wants you to do on a day‑by‑day
basis.
Desire for alignment with God was one of the
most important qualities of the great men and
women of the Bible from Abraham to David to
Esther to the disciples. I believe it is an
essential goal of divine time management.
This
excerpt is from Divine
Time Management, (c) 2017 by Elizabeth
Grace Saunders. Reprinted with permission of
FaithWords,
New York, NY. All rights
reserved.
