Only the most vital in someone's life has access to his time. Jesus gave His time only to the "must" of His life. At the age of twelve He said, "I must be in my father's house". At the height of His ministry He said, "We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work".
1. God is a master planner. 2. God planned the salvation of the world from the foundations of the world. 3. God has a fixed time for everything. The Bible says, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" (Ecclesiastes3:1) 4. The Lord Jesus followed a pre-determined time schedule. He said, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here" (John 7:6) 5. All who want to be like God, plan their time even as He has planned His. 6. Those who do not plan their time have decided that time, events and circumstances will rule them. They are like a tree whose branches and leaves are open to be moved in any direction, by any wind, coming from any direction, at whatever intensity, for whatever duration and at whatever hour. They are like a branch at sea, totally at the mercy of the waves. 7. God plans time and keeps to it. 8. Those who want to be like God, plan their time before God and having planned it, keep to it. 9. Those who plan their time have decided to succeed. 10. Those who do not plan their time have decided to fail. 11. Satan labours to ensure that he has a great portion of all the time that is not planned. 12. Those who plan to succeed have a clearly defined order of priorities written down. 13. Those who succeed give the majority of their time to their priority projects(s) 14. Those who succeed give the best hours to their priority project. They, therefore, give the best and the largest portion of their time to their priority project(s). 15. Jesus gave His best hours to his priority project. 16. To tell what or who a man worships, look at the distribution of his time. His "god" has the largest share. 17. Sleep is the "god" of most people and they have planned it to be so. They protect their sleeping hours with full force. They hardly do a thing to protect the other things, and when something does not happen, they convert the time to sleeping time. 18. There are others whose "god" is idleness. 19. Each person faithfully keeps the appointment he makes with the "god" of his life. He does everything to be at the appointment. 20. In other to know who/what a man's "god" is, find out whose appointment he will not break. 21. Those who worship the "goddess" sleep give her the largest portion of their time 22. Those who worship idleness give the "goddess" idleness many hours each day. 23. Idleness is defined as the time that is not put into useful work. 24. Any time that cannot be accounted for is wasted. 25. Those who understand the will of God redeem time. 26. The real evidence that a project is on a man's heart, that it is a priority project, is that he will invest all his "free" time into it. 27. Fools have no priority projects. 28. Losers may plan well, but they leave out their priority projects and get carried away with secondary and tertiary issues. 29. Winners stick to the priority issue. 30. Winners draw time-tables. 31. Winners put the priority issues on the time-table. 32. Winners then look at the time-table and ask, "Is there anything I can do to give time to the priority project?" 33. Winners ask, "What secondary or tertiary issues can I take off my time table so that the time allocated to it may be added to that already given to my priority project?" They ask, look at the time table, weigh things, strike off some things and give the time initially programmed for them to the priority project. 34. A winner asks, "How can I cut down my sleeping time in order to increase the time available for my priority project?"
35. Winners, after they have done all they can to have all the time they can find given to the priority project on their time-table, cry to God, "Show me what else I can do to increase the time available to my priority projects. God will show the winner some other modifications that can help him to gain time. 36. Planning and maximum use of time takes strict discipline. 37. Jesus gave His time only to the "must" of His life. At the age of twelve He said, "I must be in my father's house". At the height of His ministry He said, "We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work". Towards the end of His life He said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priest and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised". Infact, the entire life of the Lord Jesus was one unending chain of "must". 38. A winner would always ask, "How can I invest my time and talents for maximum productivity and maximum results?"
J.