What does the Bible say about time management?

The believer's walk then is to be with sober care and consideration, not as that of ungodly fools (v.15). God's love and God's light have been powerful incentives for our walk, now we are also to use God-given wisdom in walking circumspectly. Being wise is a true characteristic of a believer. "Redeeming the time" (v.16) is fully and rightly using the opportunities that each occasion may offer. Such care and concern is of great importance because the days are evil. For though a believer is not a fool, yet he may be unwise and not use his time to advantage. Let him not be this way, but understand what the will of the Lord is for him (v.17). To understand is not simply to know, but to rightly perceive what he knows. The will of the Lord is always spiritually profitable.

Christians are exhorted to 'redeem the time.' Eph. 5:16; Col. 4:5. This does not mean 'to make up for lost time'; but to seize every favourable opportunity. In Dan. 2:8 the king said that the wise men sought 'to gain the time': that is, obtain a delay in the hope that the king might relent, or that something might happen that would save them.

We should also pray for others who are in the Lord's work and it is Paul's desire here that the Lord should open a door for him. Sometimes we listen to news from the Lord's work where someone writes that there are many open doors, but Paul does not ask for many doors, he only asks for one because you cannot pass through many doors at one time. Therefore he requests this prayer that the Lord might open one door for him, so that he might announce the mystery of Christ which comprises the whole Christian truth. We pray for the gospel, and this is important, but it is not all, we should pray that the whole Christian truth is proclaimed. Then Paul speaks of our walk in relation to those without who watch us and we should redeem the time. This does not mean that you must work for twenty-four hours a day but it means that you have to do the right thing at the right time, this must be our exercise in our walk. If there is an opportunity then we should take it under the Lord's guidance, this is the meaning of redeeming the time.

"Redeeming the time" (Eph. 5:16): we are called, in a world that is against us, to be awaiting every opportunity to seize for Christ. To live Christ before the world, that is wisdom; "redeeming the time" is not merely not wasting it. The devil seeks to preoccupy men's thoughts and affections: we want to redeem time from this, by seeking every opportunity of introducing Christ.

Business, the care of the family, etc. etc., take up much time, thought and strength. But if necessary things are done for God’s glory, the time spent is well spent. And if we do the necessary things of this life in this spirit we shall certainly use our free time, plan the spending of our income, in a way that will show we know something of “the two magnitudes.”

In this place God's insistence on the keeping of the Sabbath is most appropriate. When work has been given us to do, there may be a danger of our getting carried away because of the work we are doing. One day in the week the work was therefore to cease. Even a matter so important as the building of the tabernacle was to give place to the rest that is necessary both physically and spiritually. “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27), for God has true consideration for the need of physical rest, but as well as this, in man's ceasing one day a week from his work, he is intended to realize that he is not to depend on his own work, but on the grace of God. This last day of the week was therefore set aside that man might have his soul specially encouraged and strengthened in the Lord.

If we take to heart the serious lesson of the power of God's anger, which actually exceeds man's knowledge, this will instill in us a deeply reverent fear of God (v. 11), issuing in the appropriate prayer, "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (v. 12). Since our days are short, we need grace from God to number them, that is, to keep them under close observation, so that we do not lose the lessons each day is intended to teach. It is such exercise by which we "gain a heart of wisdom."

Then in verse 7 we have a very beautiful and encouraging word: "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." Timothy was to keep in mind all that the apostle brought before him, and the Lord would give him understanding. Whatever the love might be that Paul had for his child in the faith, and however desirous he might be that he should make progress in the mind of God, he could not give him understanding. No one could do this but the Lord. People sometimes think that to understand the mind of God a good deal of natural intellect is required, but this is a very great mistake. Mere natural ability goes for nothing in the things of God. You must have understanding given you of the Lord. Your natural understanding will not serve you in the things of God. You may be very clever in the things of men, politics, business and the like, and be alarmingly ignorant of the things of God; and you may be intensely stupid in the things of the world, but this is no reason why you should be stupid in the things of God, for the Lord can give you understanding in all things, and He will do so if He is sought. Let me say to the youngest here, keep the things of God in your mind that are brought before you, think them over in the presence of the Lord, looking to Him to make them clear to you, and you may rest assured He will never fail you. Sometimes when I have gone to some one about a point which seemed difficult to me, and perhaps have got little or no light, I have felt I should have gone to the Lord direct, and thus have saved myself a lot of trouble, If I go to a man, and I have not understanding, he cannot give it me. He may not be able to help me because I may not be able to receive the truth. He may answer my question, but he cannot make me understand; but the Lord can. I do not deprecate seeking help from those who know the truth better than ourselves, but I want to direct your attention to the only One who can give you understanding. We require more meditation, and we need to cultivate a habit of getting alone with the Lord, and thinking over His things in His presence. If we go to Himself about things that may be difficult to us, and if we ask Him to tell us what His thought is, we will get more help in five minutes than we could get at a dozen readings or lectures, however important these may be in their place. It is our privilege to consider what is brought before us in the scriptures; it is the prerogative and pleasure of the Lord to give us understanding. He has given us His Spirit, the anointing which teaches us, and our ability to take in the mind of God lies in the Spirit; but having the Spirit is not in itself sufficient; we need to have our minds set upon the things of God and we require to be very diligent. You know the time has to be redeemed, and if you do not redeem it it becomes lost to you. We are exhorted in two epistles to redeem the time, because the days are evil. If the days were not evil the time would not have to be redeemed. Time is in the hands of the enemy. You have got to seize the moments as they fly past, to lay hold of every opportunity, to make every moment serve the eternal interests of your soul. The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. If a man is bent on getting on in the world, his thoughts are full of it, and all his energies are directed to the one end he has in view. You have got to attend to your daily avocations, I know, but when the day's work is done and the mind released from the duties imposed upon it, where does it turn? Is it idle and unfruitful? Some of us who have been long on the way feel where we have missed many opportunities, and this accounts for how little we have got on in the things of God; but some here to-night are young, and if they will only take warning, and keep much in the Lord's company, and seek to make every moment contribute something to the eternal profit of their souls, they will find that they will not only be greatly enriched themselves, but they will be of incalculable blessing to others. Some of us feel how very poverty stricken we are, but the fault is our own, for the Lord is not unwilling to help us. He helped Paul and Timothy, and He will help you and me. He has abounded toward us in all wisdom and intelligence. I have dwelt long upon this matter, because I feel in these days we must be careful as to what we hear; we must learn each one of us to get to the Lord for ourselves, and to be careful of trusting to the human mind, either our own or another's.

(Vv. 13, 14). Without reference to God or our brethren, the flesh can say, “we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.” Self-will decides where to go, how long to stay, and what shall be done. There is not necessarily anything wrong in these things. The wrong is that God is not in all our thoughts. The life of self-will is a life without God. Life is viewed as if our days were at our disposal. We forget that we know not what may be on the morrow, and that our life is but a vapour.

This may have been so, but the specific subject of this early communion between the Servant and the One who sent Him is not revealed, only the fact is certain, that He sought the solitudes "to pray." As on another occasion He was "alone praying" (Luke 9:18), exemplifying what He also taught the importance of secret prayer (Matt. 6:6). This privacy was only to be secured by such an act of self-sacrifice as this. The needy crowd surrounded Him in the evening, and a similar throng would seek Him in the early morning. The Lord therefore went out into the night-chills, always keenest in the hour before the dawn, to secure a period free from interruptions, thus subordinating, the activities of His service to the confession of His dependence upon God. What an example for us in the strenuous life of today!