Giving our time is unlike any other kind of giving. For one, time is a resource that you can’t recover once you’ve given it. And unlike money or material resources, you don’t know how much of it you actually have.
In Acts 2:46 we see two important factors supporting the strength and growth of the church:
- They spent time together.
- It was time well-spent.
We have 8,760 hours in each year. We’ll spend 57% of each year working and sleeping, assuming we sleep eight hours per day and work 40 hours per week (if you work 50 hours per week, it’s 63%).
Now imagine you gather with our church every opportunity you can – from 9:30am to 12:30pm on Sundays, plus an hour per week at our prayer meeting on Wednesday night, plus two hours per month at our mens or womens ministry. That’s a whopping 232 hours per year, but that only makes up 2.6% of your annual hours.
This just helps emphasize how important it is to be thoughtful about how we spend our limited time with the body of Christ. How can we be sure that we’re spending our time well? We should spend our time seeking to make connections – after all, it’s the connections that turn body parts into a whole body. Acts tells us plainly how the early disciples spent their time together – they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship (Strong’s definition: “Active participation in a common life”), breaking bread together, and prayer.
The world thinks of time in terms of busyness or not busyness. Christians think of time in terms of wisdom and foolishness. Ephesians 4:15-16 says, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Colossians 4:5 says, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.” Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
One reason why the early church grew was because they were generous with their time. What a blessing it is when a brother or sister in the church gives us their time…to pray together, eat together, study scripture together and share life together.
Let’s be wise and generous in giving our time for the things of God!
