The Tyranny of Time
By Howard Rich
Find Freedom from the Tyranny of Time
Remember the last time you faced a day with back-to-back meetings, and then someone canceled? It was as if you were given a gift of an hour, a precious 60-minute oasis in the middle of the fast-moving stream of life. Perhaps you paused to consider the things you could do with that gift. Go on a walk? Call that friend that you’d forgotten about. Read that article that’s been on your desk for a month. Take a nap? Or did you fill it up with more work? Regardless of how you spent it, for one moment, you relished the possibilities afforded you by this precious offering.
A Precious Gift
From a kingdom perspective, the truth is that the 24 hours of every day are just such precious gifts. Here’s another kingdom truth: we have enough of it. The enemy always wants to convince us that God is a miser, doling out an increasing volume of work to be crammed into the limited time he has granted us. The comment, “I just don’t have enough time,” is an admission that we have bought the lie.
This distortion is the cause of one of the greatest afflictions of Christian leaders: We spend so much time working for God that we have no time left for God to work in us. In a time scarcity, listening for and waiting on God gets sacrificed on the altar of human productivity.
A Question to Answer
So, here’s the question: Would God call us into a position requiring us to do an amount of work that forced us to sacrifice time with him to succeed? If not, perhaps the problem is not the lack of time but a deeper drive that convinces us that we have not achieved enough, earned enough, or experienced enough.
Time, work, relationships, worship, and rest are all gifts from God. In God’s economy, they are supplied in complete and adequate portions. They never steal from each other. Only when we live as owners seeking control do they appear to be at war.
Three Suggestions
Let me offer three brief suggestions if you lack time for everything you’re trying to do.
- Surrender your time back to God: every hour, every minute, every second. Lay aside the temptation to play the owner and ask God how He would have you invest His gift of time for His kingdom. And then obey!
- Start each day with this prayer: “Lord, you have given me enough time to complete everything you’ve called me to do today. Guide me every step of the way and help me invest your time today with anticipation and joy.”
- Ask God to give you the ability to value quiet time with Him more highly than any other time in your day. This spiritual battle can only be won through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Stop Believing the Lie
It’s time for Christian leaders to stop believing the lie, cease being controlled by time, and no longer model the same anxiety and frenetic pace of the world around us. Time is a gift of God, given to us to steward according to His desires, accomplish His work, and do His way for His glory.
Ecclesiastes 3:11-13
He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
