GIVING THE BEST OF OUR TIME – Feb. 1
February 1, 2013“…I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing…” 2 Samuel 24:24b
February 1! How did that happen?
Hourglass Shadow (Photo credit: Bill David Brooks)
I find the realization of that date rather troubling. One-twelfth of 2013 is already gone and I still have to make a conscious effort not to date documents 2012. I know that it will not seem that long and I will be packing Christmas decorations back up stairs as 2013 is coming to a close. Blink and 2013 will be gone. We realize how precious time is when it is gone or we don’t have enough of it. We feel its flight when we look back at pictures whose time-stamp doesn’t match up to our internal clocks.
There are whole professions established to protect our assets. Banks have large vaults to protect our valuables. There are financial experts to guide us to the investments that have the best opportunity to cause our assets to increase. We can get security systems to help protect our house and vehicles. What about our time?
Time is our most valuable asset.
The lawn-care industry exists because people don’t want to spend the time mowing their own lawn. It is preferable to pay someone else to do that job so they can have time do something more preferable.
Most of us are not independently wealthy. Therefore, we have to work a job. When we go into work we are making a transaction for our time. We are willing to sell our time to an employer in exchange for money. I am not going into work unless my employer is willing to buy my time. My time has a value.
The problem with these transactions is that they are not reciprocal. You can sell your time but you cannot buy more of it. You can spend money and time to live healthy and active but that is merely stretching time. Time can be used to reclaim lost money but money cannot be used to reclaim lost time.
An asset is valuable only if it is scarce. Gold would not be valuable if it was in everyone’s backyard. Diamonds would not be valuable if we were digging them out of the treads of our shoes. We all have a limited number of days – no one knows what that number might be. That makes time a very scarce resource.
Our time is a scarce resource, which makes time our most valuable asset.
What are you giving God of your most valuable asset?
David understood that worship of God should never be cheap or careless. God wants our best. He deserves our best. He is worthy of our “first fruit.” A person who loves God with all that they are will want to give God their best.
Proverbs 90:12 “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Thinking about the number of our days makes us invest our time wisely. I have heard and used the many excuses about conserving my time:
“I can’t find time to read my Bible.”
“I can’t find time to pray.”
“Our Church has paid staff to serve those people.”
“I don’t want to give up vacation time for that.”
The tendency is to give God the blemished part of our time – to spend time with Him when we are exhausted and about to fall asleep – to be so busy with other things that there is not time to serve Him and His sheep – to help out only when it is convenient. That is all time that doesn’t cost us much.
That is our blemished time.
I will agree that giving blemished time is better than nothing at all but does anyone of us really want to be making that argument? I want to be worshiping God with my best. I want to be gratefully worshiping God with my most valuable asset – my time. I can think of no wiser use of my time than giving it as an offering to my King.
PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for not giving you my best and first-fruit of my time. Father, help me to be wise about how I spend my limited time on this earth. Give me a heart that is generous with my time. Amen
A DEVOTED LIFE 
Reblogged this on Stuff I'm thinking or thought and commented:
These are some great reminders.
I have to remind myself over and over again that I am just a steward for God’s time. Would He one day say, “Well done, faithful servant”?
Quality time with God is never wasted, an investment for both now and eternity. Our time here is a blink compared to eternity. God drove this point home to me when my husband became very sick with pneumonia two months ago … I appreciate you visiting my blog.
This post is especially relevant for God’s people today. We keep ourselves so busy, only giving God and giving service to His children at times convenient to us. I think we should all lovingly reorder our priorities to include God daily. Praying for ten minutes or doing a service to others rather than engaging in a feel good activity of our own would be examples.
Thanks for liking my most recent post on my blog. I’ll be stopping by your blog now and then.
Much wisdom here! Time is something we all can be rich in or squander. Thanks for your thoughts!
Beautiful. Glad you spent some of ‘your time’ writing this! Thanks!
Ouch! You hit me hard with this one! Knowing that there are many times when I only have leftovers to offer God is bad enough. To think of such offerings as “blemished” takes it to an entirely different realm. Thank you for the challenge!
what a beautifully thought out and presented “calling out” to believers. “give God the blemished part of our time” heartbreaking and convicting. needed to read that. the heart check. –kris
This was amazing. I agree with the time aspect… my first time actually seeing it as such. Nice perspective.
Important reminders, JD. ‘Love the line: “I want to be gratefully worshiping God with my most valuable asset–my time.” What a great goal: to make worshipful choices of how I spend my time!
Ohhh this post puts me in my place. I definitely need to make BETTER time for the Lord, I was just feeling ashamed of my laziness the other night as I quickly prayed in my head and went on my way…. I really like that prayer. Thank you.
This is such an important reminder. Too many times I let my day rush by without spending any with God and then I’m unhappy with myself for allowing that to happen. Thank you for this. I’m sure it’s a good wake up call for some.