One of the greatest barriers to effective time management is failing to listen to God’s word for us. This article aims to highlight one fail-proof method of increasing your effectiveness, increasing your time-management skills and reducing stress for the child of God.
We have probably all watched a spy movie, where the secret agents are told in forced whispers, “Synchronise your watches and when I say go… GO!” Although mostly done to create a heightened state of awareness and expectation for the viewers, in reality, our timing in life is very crucial. Imagine what would happen to our secret agents on a rescue mission if they all have slightly different times on their watches? Waiting around for members of their elite team could prove extremely disastrous in a volatile and hostile environment, what if a few of them decided to leave a bit earlier instead of waiting around? Chaos, I’m sure. As each team member has their own particular role to play it is vital for the success and effectiveness of the mission if they work together.
But how is this snippet into the logistics of Mission impossible relevant to our own life. Here and now, after all, we are hardly secret agents or people who live in a hostile war zone. Actually, if you thought that you would be wrong, the Bible tells us that we’re not fighting against the physical but spiritual forces in high places (Ephesians 6: 12) and the Prince of the spirit of the air (Ephesians 2:2), which is in opposition with the Holy Spirit within us. Although less obvious, our hostile environment is just as real as living in a war-torn country or carrying out a secret mission for the government. It is because of the subtle nature of our war that we need to be extra attentive to our timing and more adept at being able to synchronise our watches with God and listen, wait for and obey His command to go when He says go.
Effective time management is NOT about doing things quickly.
In our everyday life, faster seems to be better. We always seem to be in a rush, rush into work, rush to meetings, rush to events, and the list goes on and on. But why do we rush around so much? Because we don’t listen, wait and obey. There is such a thing as moving too quickly or too slowly, particularly in new and important decisions, but this can also be seen in the more mundane things. As Born-again Children of God, particularly women, we need to synchronise our time to God’s own time and accept that He knows best and trust Him to achieve the utmost in our lives, in order for our mission in life to be successful and in order to increase our effectiveness we have to work with God not against Him. But we find that instead of listening to His voice, we are often like the eager soldier who moves too quickly and then ends up in a dangerous situation or like the fearful soldier who, because of fear becomes paralysed and unable to move at all, we are ‘ineffective’. Both of these situations are disastrous in their own way for our physical, mental and spiritual well-being and growth. The Bible tells us that God prepares the way for us and that He goes ahead of us, imagine that! We don’t have to stress, worry or rush around unnecessarily, everything has already been prepared for us; all we have to do is wait for the signal to move and then move, the power to live effectively is already given to us. Even Jesus had His road prepared for Him by John, He didn’t move until John had planted the seeds for His ministry, so if even Jesus waited, why can’t we?
I myself am not immune to rushing around, quite recently, I had to be at an important meeting to invigilate an exam and I had made plans to get their early. That morning I woke up and switched on my computer to do some work, time kept passing by and I kept on readjusting my schedule whilst simultaneously replying to the Holy Spirit’s prompts to move with “yes, yes, I know! I’ll leave soon.” Until I eventually noticed that I only had 45 min left before I had to leave! I rushed to get my bags ready, I rushed into the bathroom, and I hurried to eat breakfast and rushed out of the flat. Three quarters of the way from the tube station I realised that I had left my glasses at home, I thought to myself “oh well, I’ll survive.” Half way there I reached into my bag to get my Oyster travel card and purse, no purse! I had left my purse in another bag from the day before (now only half an hour left!) I rushed back home frantically looking for my purse and my glasses. On finding them I rushed back out of the house, this time the Holy Spirit told me to look in my purse (good thing I listened this time) I noticed I didn’t have any money in it; I had left it in yet another bag! Rushing back into the house I grabbed my money, then half power walked and half ran all the way from the flat to my destination in Edgware Road, rush, rush, rush. I said to God. “Okay, I get it Father, from now on when you say move I’m going to move.” And although thankfully I got to my destination on time (by His grace), if I had listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in the first place I would have known when to move instead of ending up rushing around like a mad woman.
Effective time management IS about being in balance with God’s plans
I was under the belief that waking early in the morning to carry out some work before leaving home was a good example of effective time management, and it was up until the time my will stopped being in alignment with God’s own. Now, I firmly believe that being ineffective and poor time management comes about by not obeying God’s command to move and relying on our own limited understanding and inevitably getting it wrong. As women, we often feel that it is our obligation and right to do 1 million things at once, but if you like I often struggle with time management, then it is most likely down to the inability to listen, wait for and obey God’s commandment to move. I just want to end with the example in the Bible of God moving Israel, the Bible says they moved only when God indicated they moved and the Lord remained in their midst continuously:
At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents…whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed.
Numbers 9:18 and 22-23 (KJV)
I have found that listening to the voice of the Lord and obeying Him is the greatest cure for stress and the best time management tool that is available. If like me you want to increase your effectiveness yet have a stress-free life, then why not join me in my new attitude of listening, waiting and obeying the Lord’s instruction to “Go” with a little bit of time and energy I am positive that we will be able to move from being “out of time” to being “in time with God”.
Say ‘No’ to rush and ‘YES’ to effective time managemnt.
