Time to reshape our schedules

I've found that fall is the best time of the year for most people to rework their schedules. The returning from vacation and the starting up of the school year provides an excellent opportunity to start afresh with the full 168 hours and see what changes for the better you can make.

Of course, there are two ways to create a new schedule: allow the chance occurrence of events to mold it, or establish time commitments according to priorities. The latter is the far more satisfying approach.

Jesus apparently lived each day with a constant awareness that He was under time constraints that made it essential for each minute to count. That doesn't mean He didn't have time to socialize, to rest, or to be interrupted. It does mean that He kept His mission in mind and made each thing that happened oriented toward that mission. If He socialized, He used the occasion to teach or to set an example. His rest gave Him new strength for the morrow. Interruptions were special opportunities for Him to show His compassion and interest in the needs of others.

As you reorder your 168 hours over the next couple of weeks, set aside some specific time for communing with the Lord - prayer, reading and meditating on the Word, and talking with brothers and sisters about spiritual things. Make it a firm commitment that lesser priorities cannot annul. The Lord will bless you for it.

Pledge to yourself and to God that you will never use "I don't have time" as an excuse to avoid meeting with the saints, or testifying about Jesus, or meeting someone's physical needs. We do have the time. What we sometimes don't have is the desire. God took the time and the effort to save us. Remembering that is the key to having the desire to do what needs to be done. We love because He first loved us.