It’s interesting to think that this was the very same question that Jesus asked himself. Jesus knew that in this world he would only have a certain number of days so he also had to spend his gift of time wisely. If we look at the beginning of Jesus ministry we find him doing several different things. He is preaching about the kingdom of God, he is calling people to follow him in living lives of faith, and he is casting out demons, healing those who are sick and performing miracles. Now it is the miraculous power people see in Jesus that draws the crowds. While some people might be coming to hear what Jesus has to say, most are coming to see a miracle or to experience healing. Look at Mark 1:32-33.
The whole city has gathered outside the door looking for Jesus to simply be a healer, but Jesus is inside asking himself, how am I going to spend the gift of time that my father has given me? What is my life going to be about? What is my ministry going to be about? How am I going to spend my time? Aren’t these the same questions we ask ourselves at the beginning of this New Year? How are we going to spend the gift of time God has given us? How are we going to spend the remaining 523,620 minutes of 2011? What is my life going to be about this year? How do I use and invest this God given gift of time?
To help him find some answers to these questions, Jesus went off to pray. Look at Mark 1:35. Now there was a reason Jesus got up early to pray, it was the only way he could get away from the crowds. Remember the entire town was camped outside on the doorstep, but very early in the morning it was still dark so Jesus could slip away unnoticed, and when Jesus goes off to pray I believe he is asking God how to use the gift of time that God had given him.
Now Jesus going off to pray tells us two important things, first it tells us that prayer is an important and valuable way to spend our time. Jesus had a limited amount of time on this earth and because he took some of that time to pray he shows us that maybe prayer needs to be our first priority and not our last resort. So many times when we face uncertainties, challenges or questions in life we spend lots of time thinking about what to do, we spend time asking people for their input and gathering information but maybe what we should be doing is asking God for help and direction. Too often I think we pray when we don’t know what else to do instead of seeing prayer as the foundation on which we build everything else. Prayer is a good use of our time and so I hope that we will spend significant time in prayer everyday of this New Year. Can we start everyday with prayer asking God to give guidance and direction to our steps and words and actions.
The other important thing to remember about prayer is that it is something we can all do. We don’t need special training to pray, we don’t need to buy any special tools or resources to pray, we just need a heart and mind that is looking toward God. The fact is that we don’t even need words to pray, look at Romans 8:26-27. When we don’t know how to pray or what to pray for, when we don’t have the words - the spirit of God intercedes for us and prays according to God’s will – so we don’t need the right words we simply need the right heart which is a heart surrendered and looking to God. I think as a church and community right now we don’t have a lot of words to use in prayer for those who are hurting, but isn’t it good to know that our sighs, or our silence, or our tears can be offered to God as prayers. We need to just keep praying.
So prayer is always a good use of our time and it should be a priority for us in the New Year, but prayer is also good because it helps give us the guidance and direction we need for the rest of life. Jesus went off to pray because he was at a cross-road in his life. Jesus had to decide how he was going to spend the limited amount of time he had on earth. Was he going to be a miracle worker and simply heal people? That would be a good thing to do, but was it the right thing? Was Jesus supposed to spend his time calling people to follow him? Was he supposed to set up a kind of school for disciples and focus on leadership development and instruct his followers on what to do and how to live once he was gone? Again, that would be a good thing to do, but was it the right thing? Or was Jesus going to be a preacher and proclaim the good news that God had come close to the people and that God loved them more than they could imagine and that this love was there for them to draw upon to help change their lives and give them the gift of eternal life? How was Jesus going to spend his time? The answer to that question didn’t come from a poll of what the people who followed Jesus wanted, and it didn’t come from a focus group of disciples, it came from the heart of God in prayer and if we really want to know how to best use the gift of time God has given us then we need to hear from the heart of God in times of prayer.
Prayer can give us the direction we need in life but only if we will take the time to ask God and then listen for the answer, and the answer may not come as quickly for us as it did for Jesus. Jesus went off to pray and got an answer that first day, but remember Jesus was also the son of God. Jesus was God in the flesh so there was a special connection between the two of them simply because of who they were. Now here is what is amazing to me – we can have the same connection with God that Jesus had not because of who we are but because of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. Look at Romans 8:11, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead – the spirit of God – lives in us, so we can have that same relationship with God that Jesus had. We can hear God in prayer like Jesus did, but we have to be willing to take the time to develop our relationship with God. It may take us some time to put aside the noise of the world and the voices of our own heart and life so we can hear God, but we can do this. It may take us time to settle in to the presence of God and be able to feel the spirit of God working within us, it may take us time to be able to hear the voice of God in our own heart and life, but again, we can do this because the spirit of God is here, and the spirit of God dwells within us.
So if we want to know how to best use the gift of time God has given us, then prayer is the place to start. After Jesus spent time in prayer he told his disciples that the way he was going to spend his time on earth proclaiming the message. The message Jesus is talking about here is the one he proclaimed in Mark 1:15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news. What Jesus was going to spend his time doing was letting people know that God had come to near to them and because of that they could draw near to God. What we see here is that the most important thing for Jesus was to make sure that people knew that their lives could be different and that their eternal destinies could be different. The most important thing to Jesus wasn’t the physical health and strength of people in this world it was our eternal relationship with God and that relationship comes when we repent, when we turn away from our selves and our sin and the things of this world and trust in God. It’s not that Jesus didn’t care about people, he did. Jesus continued to heal people, but the priority of his life was proclaiming the message that everyone could experience a relationship with God.
For me, the challenging question becomes, how do I make this part of my life? How can I take the time God has given me and work in ways that make an eternal difference in my life, in the life of my family, in the life of the church and in the life of our community? While making a difference in this world is important we also have to ask ourselves how we are working to make an eternal difference. How are we using the finite number of days God has given us to make an eternal difference in our lives and in the lives of others?
One way we make an eternal difference in our own lives is to invest time developing a deeper relationship with Him. Are we taking time everyday to be in the presence of God, to hear his voice and understand his will? If not, how can we invest our time in that primary relationship? One way we can make an eternal difference in the life of someone else is to love them the way Christ has loved us, which is selflessly and sacrificially. If our love for one another reflects the love of Christ, that love will make an eternal difference, so how can we love our spouses and families in ways that reflect the love of Christ? How can we love our church and community in a way that will proclaim the message of God’s love and power? And how can we tell people with words of grace and truth that God is here for them and that God loves them and that this love can make a difference here and now and in the life to come?
The answer to these questions may not come until we are willing to take the time to pray – remember Jesus had to go off and pray about these things – and this is why we as a church are taking the time to pray and I hope that you will join us and pray for God to show us how as a church we can not just make a difference in our community, but make an eternal difference in the lives of people by sharing with them and showing them the love and power of God.
There is one more lesson for us to learn from Jesus as we think about using the gift of time God has given us. When the disciples come and find Jesus he tells them how he is going to use his time. There is something important that happens when we tell someone else how we are going to use our time. First of all, just voicing our intentions makes them seem more real to us, even being willing to write them down makes them more real and they suddenly become something that we have to deal with. I don’t know how many of you make New Year’s resolutions, but if you do, you know that we are more likely to follow through on them if we write them down and we are even more likely to follow through on them if we tell someone else what we are going to do. Naming our intentions helps make them clear to us and it motivates us to act on them. Jesus tells his disciples how he is going to spend his time and we need to find people to share with as well. Is there someone we can turn to and say, this is how God is asking me to spend my time this year and then are we willing to ask them, would you help hold me accountable?
God has given each of us a gift of time and once we have used it, we can’t go back and take it up again, it is a finite resource and so we need to make the most of it. Every day, every minute of every day is valuable and important and never to be lived again so are we making the most of this gift? Are we using it the way God would want us to? Are we making a difference in people’s lives, are we making an eternal difference in people’s lives? When it comes to using our time wisely, prayer is a good place to start – prayer is always a good place to start and in times of prayer, like Jesus, we need to ask God how we can make an eternal difference in the lives of others.
You’ll see that the next steps for this week call us to do just that. These aren’t just questions to ask ourselves, these are questions to ask God in prayer. So if you are willing to take 10 minutes a day to pray, ask God these questions…
What ONE thing can I do this year that will make a lasting, even eternal, difference in my life?
What ONE thing can I do this year that will make a lasting, even eternal, difference in the life of my family?
What ONE thing can I do this year that will make a lasting, even eternal, difference in the life of our community / world?
Who can I share these ideas with so I will be more likely to follow through on them?
