The Treasure of Time: Prioritizing Time with God
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21 (NIV)
This is a very well-known passage of Scripture, one we often quote in the context of how we steward our money and possessions. However, I think there is a form of treasure that we tend to overlook— our time.
We often respond to the question “how are you?” with “good, but busy.” Busy with work, busy with family, busy with church activities, busy with the basic necessities of day-to-day life. Most of us would agree that we constantly feel like we do not have enough time. There’s always more we wish we could be doing, more to catch up on, more work to do— more, more, more.
And somewhere on our “more” list is “spend more time with God.” If I’m being honest, that is one of the things on my list that often gets skipped in order for me to make time for something else. I didn’t have “time” to read my Bible yesterday, but somehow I had “time” to scroll instagram for 5 minutes about 4 times throughout the day. A total of 20 minutes of precious time that I “didn’t have”, but yet… I did. Why? Because it’s where my heart was.
I believe we can contemplate Matthew 6:21 from this angle: for where your time is spent, there your heart will be also.
We make time for what our heart wants to make time for…
While most of the things we are busy with are not inherently bad, they often pull us away from what is better. We can learn from Martha, who also struggled to say no to the lesser things that were pulling her away from Jesus.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)
I’ve started repeating this mantra to myself, especially in the mornings: “if I don’t have time for Jesus, I don’t have time for anything else.” It’s a simple reminder that I’m only as busy as I choose to be. Every ‘yes’ is a ‘no’ to something else. Here’s a few simple steps we can take to begin saying ‘yes’ to time with Jesus more and ‘no’ to the busyness.
- Ask God to reveal where your heart is. Ask Him to show you the “lesser treasurers” that hold your heart captive and for Him to help you replace them with the true Treasure— Him. Remember “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning…” Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)
- Start simple. Sometimes we feel like we have to go big or go home. If we can’t do an hour of quiet time every morning, we won’t do it at all. Try reading a one-page devotion and the Scripture that is paired with it. God isn’t counting the minutes— He just wants us to come and be with Him.
- Figure out one or two things you need to say ‘no’ to in order to have more time for God. Pay attention to even the small things in your day that are consistent time-absorbers that you could do without.
- Allow your loves to be formed by practice. In his book You are What You Love, James K.A. Smith speaks to how what we love shapes who we are. He states “Our orienting loves are like a kind of gravity—carrying us in the direction to which they are weighted.” He continues to ask the question “How does my love get aimed and directed?” He reminds us that “Spirit-led formation of our loves is a recalibration of the heart” and that “your ultimate loves are formed and aimed by your immersion in practices.” In simple terms, what we do day-in and day-out, our subconscious rhythms of life, our default habits— all ultimately shape who we are. So to reshape our loves, and thus, ourselves, we must implement new practices that reorient our love toward God.
Together, let us evaluate what we treasure most by examining where we spend our time. Then may we invite God into the places of our heart that have been occupied for too long by lesser things.
He is the Ultimate Treasure. May our hearts and our time be shaped into being wholly His.
Check out these resources for further reading and study on related topics:
Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith
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