“Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.” (NLT)
There are a multitude of ways to spend our time, whether it’s with family, friends, work, hobbies or more. Yet, it is vitally important to first and foremost spend time with the Lord. When we offer our time to God, He blesses and redeems it. Just as when we receive a paycheck, the first thing we do is tithe on that money. The same is true of our time. The first thing we should do in the morning, is spend time with the Lord. When we put God first, whether it’s our finances or our time, we can be sure that He will bless and multiply it.
If you ask most people what they need more of, most often they will answer: “Time and Money.” Often people complain that they don’t have enough of either. Yet Luke 6:38 instructs us: “Give and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” Whatever you need more of, is what you need to give to God first. Mathew 14:13-21 gives the account of when Jesus multiplied the fish and loaves. There were thousands of people that needed to be fed, but all they had available was one little boy’s lunch. However, when the disciples brought the small meal to Jesus first, He blessed and multiplied it. Suddenly there was enough to feed thousands with bountiful leftovers. The little boy that gave his small lunch to Jesus now had 12 basket fulls of food to bring home. In the world when you give, you have less. However, in God’s system you give and end up receiving far more than you gave! It’s a wonderful system. Just as they offered the fish and bread to Jesus and He blessed and multiplied it, when we offer Him our time, He will bless and multiply it as well. If you find you never have enough time in the day, then determine to spend more time with the Lord before you do anything else. You will soon find that your day runs more smoothly and you accomplish far more than you could’ve possibly imagined.
In addition, by putting the Lord first, not only are we blessed, but it blesses Him as well. When you love someone, you desire to spend time with them. God loves us so much and He wants to spend time with us. There is so much information He wants to impart to us. We need to set aside part of each day to not only praise and worship Him, but to pray and listen for His response. We need to hear from the Lord. We should never be in so much of a hurry that we leave our prayer time without waiting to listen to God’s response. Imagine if you were an expert at math and someone asked for your help with math problems that they had for school. Now imagine when it was time to sit down and discuss, they did all the talking. They told you all about the trouble they were having understanding the math, and how they needed help, they talked about the teacher and the class and all the different problems. At the end of their monologue, they even thanked you for helping them, but then stood up and walked out before you could say anything. They did all the talking and no listening. They didn’t allow you any time to respond and answer their questions. The same is true with the Lord. When we come to Him we must take time to be still and listen for His response. Be patient and wait on the Lord for His instructions for the day. As you do this, you will find that your days go more smoothly and you accomplish everything you need to for that day. Determine each day that you will set aside time to spend not only to pray but to listen and watch how God redeems your time and provides answers you didn’t even know you needed!
Further Reading: Psalm 91, Isaiah 55, Proverbs 3:6-16, Mathew 6:33, Psalm 37, Deuteronomy 30:10-14, Mathew 14:13-21
