ByTime is one of life’s commodities you can never get back when it gets spent. It keeps running, whether you like it or not. And so, for such a precious gift from God, the best way to make the most out of it is to learn how to manage it. Today, I want you, through this article, to learn five principles of time management that can help you enormously, especially as a child of God.
#1 Time waits for no man
Time will never wait for you. God programmed it to keep running no matter what happens on Earth. So you can never change it. That is why even during an eclipse, where there’s a distortion of the sun’s brightness in some day parts of the Earth, time still keeps moving.
Therefore because time waits for no man, it’s expedient to plan your days, months, and years according to God’s wisdom so you can make the most out of it. That leads me to the second principle.
#2 Your purpose will dictate how you’ll use your time
When you know the assignment God has given you to do, and you dedicate your life to see its step-wise manifestation, it’ll dictate how you’ll use your time. You’ll have a different approach to life, unlike many who don’t see value in using time wisely.
Proverbs 29:18 (NKJV) says,
“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.”
There’s so much to unpack in this scripture. Let’s look at it. The word “revelation” is synonymous with vision. And the phrase “cast off restraint” implies indiscipline resulting from waywardness. So here’s my paraphrased meaning of the first part of the scripture above:
“Where there is no vision, the people become waywardly indisciplined.”
Vision gives birth to purpose, and purpose gives birth to discipline. A man of purpose doesn’t do all things that come his way; he focuses on the things that’ll make him progress in advancing his divine mandate.
As a person living on purpose, please spend more time doing what God has told you to do, and your work improve. Moreover, for those struggling to know your divine purpose, approach God for such a revelation and grace to fulfil it. It’ll change your life’s direction forever.
Vision gives birth to purpose, and purpose gives birth to discipline.
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#3 You’ll never have more than 24 hours
God, in His own wisdom, has given everybody on Earth twenty-four hours – rich or poor, man or woman. And so making the most out of each day heavily depends on every individual, not Him.
A primary way of maximising your time every day is to plan it – either a day before or the dawn of that day, after your devotion with the Lord. Doing this will make you well-organised to face your day with extreme focus, self-confidence, order and purpose-driven.
#4 Everything revolves around seedtime and harvest
Principle number four states that everything revolves around seedtime and harvest. In other words, you’ll reap what you sow (see Galatians 6:7). God set up this fourth principle (according to my list) in Genesis 8:22 (NKJV) after the flood during Noah’s regime of life. Here’s the reading:
[22] “While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”
So from God’s own mouth, seedtime and harvest will never cease as long as this Earth is existent. That implies where you’ll be tomorrow depends on the decisions and actions you take today.
If you’re investing your time to know God’s Word as a preacher, many people won’t know you in the face of ministry. But as you keep being faithful and broadening your knowledge, a time will come when God will exalt you highly because the world will pay you to get what you know. On the other hand, if you spend money buying narcotics, you’re going to experience health problems in future.
Sometimes, people aren’t conscious of the future effects of their actions today, so they mismanage their lives. But friend, I want to advise you. If you desire to have a good harvest in future, pay attention to sowing good seeds in your life as well as others from today.
If you desire to have a good harvest in future, pay attention to sowing good seeds in your life as well as others from today.
#5 There’ll always be seasons in time
The preacher says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV) that,
[1] “To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:”
In time, there are seasons. For example, assuming God has given you 100 years of life on Earth. Within those years, there’s a season to be a toddler, another to be an infant, adolescent, student, worker, husband, vision career, father, grandfather, legacy builder, etc. In all these life seasons, you’ll not be doing one thing all the time. You won’t be studying as much as you do at 50 when you’re a student at 18.
So just as it’s written in Ecclesiastes 3:1, there’s a season for everything, and time is bound to every purpose under heaven.
Even though every genuine vision from God outlives the visionary, your part in fulfilling your divine mandate has an expiry date. You’ll not live forever. So one wise thing you can do as a leader is to train your replacement.
Don’t just parent children or mentor people; teach them the ways of the Lord. Be intentional about it because nothing you start, by God’s leadership, should die when you exit the world physically.
