07 Disciplines of Quiet Time: Time (‘2-4’ Goal)
Listen Here:
We’ve discussed a grand total of six disciplines so far in this series:
The Discipline of Reading to Behold Glory
The Discipline of Meditation and Memorization (M&M)
The Discipline of Prayer
The Discipline of Worship
The Discipline of Privacy
The Discipline of Fasting
And today we finish off talking about #7…
7. The Discipline of Time.
Now the reason I chose to finish off this series with the discipline of time is because our time is so important. William Penn, a religious figure of the 1600’s wrote this about time, which I think could not be more spot on…He said, ‘Time is what we want most, but what we use worst’, and that’s true.
‘Time is what we want most, but what we use worst’.
All of us can admit we do not use time as wisely as we should and all of us have certainly said ‘I wish I had more time’ before. On that, I actually finished reading a book by Paul David Tripp a few months ago called ‘Lead’ and in that book he said he was asked ‘if he could have any superpower what would it be’ and he answered ‘the ability to create more time’.
That’s so relatable. We all want more time, because time is valuable. Time is precious. And Paul in Scripture was clearly very well aware of that, which is why he encourages us in Ephesians 5:16 (and Colossians 4:5) to ‘make the best use of our time’.
And why would Paul say that? Would he say that if we already made the best use of our time?
Of course he wouldn't! Paul said that because he knew we are awful managers of the clock, constantly wasting the time we have.
Paul goes on to explain what it looks like to make the best use of our time, saying in verses 17 and 18 (of Ephesians 5) that we ought to know what the will of the Lord is and be filled with the Spirit. So essentially what Paul is saying is that we make the best use of our time by filling up our cup with Christ and not with things of this world.
And how do we fill our cup with Christ? How do we know what the will of the Lord is? And how do we become filled with the Spirit?
Surprise surprise. We do that by spending some good ol’ time with the Lord. We know the will of God because we are walking with God. We’re filled with the Spirit because we are led by it. In other words, we do all this through ample time with God in quiet time.
Now what am I trying to say here? What I want you to realize is that quiet time is not just a great investment of time, it is the BEST investment of time. You can invest your time in no better place than His presence. Truly. You can’t.
So if you’ve ever asked or wondered how much time you should spend daily with Jesus in quiet time…the answer is as much as you can. As much as you can.
So If I asked you ‘How much time did you spend with God today?’ Your answer should always be as much as possible. It should!
Now even though that should be our answer, we all know it's not. But it is a very healthy challenge or goal to have. So I challenge you to spend as much time as you can with Jesus. I know we all have competing desires and at times we fall short, but ultimately the person of Jesus Christ should be our greatest desire and if that is really true in our lives that will be reflected through a relentless and continuous pursuit of Him. That will be reflected in your time.
And again I know you’re busy. I am too. We’re all really busy. I get it. But we should never be too busy for God. Never. We may not have too much spare time, but we do have time, and we should be disciplined in how we use it.
There’s a quote from author J Oswald Sanders from his book "Spiritual Leadership” that acknowledges our busyness while also emphasizing the importance of being disciplined with our time, and I want to read it to you.
Hear this. Sanders writes:
‘The character and career of a person depends on how he or she spends spare time. We cannot regulate school or office hours - those are determined for us - but we can say what we will do before and after those commitments. The way we employ the surplus hours, after provision has been made for work, meals, and sleep, will determine if we get opportunity and a subtle danger. A discretionary hour can be wisely invested or foolishly wasted. Each moment of the day is a gift from God that deserves care, for by any measure, our time is short and the work is great.’
As Sanders would put it, ‘our problem is not too little time but making better use of the time we have’.
What would it look like if you spent the same amount of time having quiet time as you did scrolling through social media? Think about it. What would it look like? For me I’d get an extra hour a day FOR SURE. For others listening, what would it look like if you spent the same amount of time having quiet time as you did doing additional work (overtime) for your job? Or as you did watching TV? As you did watching the news? However you spend your spare time, I challenge you what would it look like if you invested your spare time differently to be with Jesus?
I love Sanders' phrasing that a discretionary hour can be wisely invested or foolishly wasted. His words echo Paul’s that we should make the best use of our time.
And like I said, unfortunately we don’t. We spend our time looking at tiktoks or watching tv instead of looking at the character of Jesus. To bring it back to what we talked about in episode one of this series, oftentimes we’d rather behold the things of the world than behold the Creator of it all. It’s true!
I also said this in episode one and I want to say it again ... and this might ruffle some feathers, it may hit you like a brick, but it's a velvet covered brick alright? It’s a brick covered with love.
We would be FOOLISH to believe that we will change the world in the name of Christ by spending simply 15 minutes a day in quiet time. The truth is the world will change us!
We need to make time for the Lord. We have to be intentional in pursuing Him.
Would you be able to confidently say you spend the most time seeking the presence of Jesus and being and walking with Him?
Now hey I know that’s a pointed question because for most if not all of us (including myself) the answer is no.
But I want you to realize that, one. And two, I want you to spend more time with Jesus! You won’t regret spending five extra minutes with Jesus and five less on tiktok or work…that is a very lopsided trade to say the least. It really is. On your deathbed you will not regret your time spent with Jesus, I promise you that.
-
Now I want to close off this final podcast by sharing something I do that helps me exercise the discipline of time and really emphasize the importance of my time with Jesus and that is what I call the 2-4 rule.
Now the term ‘2-4’ comes from a summer camp I worked at two years ago where they called our off-days ‘2-4’s because we got 24 hours off…I’d never heard an off day called that before and I thought it was cool so I took that term and ran with it for myself.
Basically with my 2-4, as my sabbath, I try my best to set aside one whole day a week to do quiet time. Now before I continue, no, I don’t spend 24 hours straight reading my Bible or praying and what not, and no, I’m not able to do this every week, but I do make it a goal to spend a significant amount of time with Jesus on one given day a week.
Normally it's Saturday for me where I can get up around 8 and conduct quiet time until like 3 or 4 or 5, getting to read to behold glory, meditating and memorizing Scripture, praying, worshiping, you name the discipline. It’s awesome.
I could not find the quote, but I remember reading a while back that it was a man’s goal to be able to retreat to be with God one whole day a month. This man would get his work done early that week and clear up the schedule just so he could seek Jesus.
And I loved reading that because most of us do that, just not with Jesus. You clear your calendar to have some time with your spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend, you set aside time to go to tailgates and football games and extra practices and tournaments and the like. Like I’ve been saying, we have more time than we think, and we make time for what's important. So why not set aside a day for Jesus?
And also I cannot, I CANNOT, say it enough the 2-4 rule/goal whatever you want to call it has been so impactful on my life. It has helped slow me down from my busy life and grow in my intimacy with Jesus, and then I’m able to live out of that.
Remember God is our master and teacher, and servants always tend to their masters work and students spend so much time under their teachers. Our lives should be similar. Our time is crucial and it's limited, and so we should aspire to grow in the discipline of time.
It’s huge. I cannot say it enough.
So why not give the 2-4 a shot? If you think that's too much time try to build up to it. You can make it a goal to read your Bible for an hour, then memorize Scripture for an hour, then pray and worship for an hour, and then choose to read a book by a Christian author for a few hours.
Time flies when you’re having fun. It does. And I’ve gotten to that point in my quiet times where the time just flies, making a whole day of quiet time feel like mere minutes, and I promise you can get to that same point if you’re not there already, and I firmly believe implementing these spiritual quiet time disciplines will significantly help you in that.
I love you all!
God bless!
