Time Margin

‘For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak’ Ecc.3:1 &7.

How do you create margin with time? Everybody has twenty-four hours but not everybody has the same level of energy at every time in a day. So rather than managing your time so tightly, why don’t you manage your energy. Do the most important things when you have your highest energy and you will see how much ground you will cover. Manage your energy. Some of us are morning people; we are at our energy peak between seven and eleven in the morning and then from noon we just begin to daydream or move at snail pace. So what do you do? Start your day early; be in the office before seven so that you can engage by seven. Do all the heavy lifting as it were before noon and then from noon sort out the lightweight tasks. If you take me to the office at seven in the morning, you are asking for trouble. I won’t do anything because I won’t be focused. I need to be quiet at that time; I just need to be alone. You need to know what your strengths are and deploy them.

When you create margin, then you ask God to use it. God uses people with margin. Look at Peter, God could send him to Cornelius house, to pray for him and baptize him in the Holy Spirit because he was available to God. You need to create margin. We create margin so that God can work. The more margin we create the more God can work through us. We create margin by the grace of God as a church. And because we create margin as a church, we are able to help the poor and empower people. We are able to support other churches in different countries, even those that have been in existence for decades. We are able to do that because we have leverage. And we able to create leverage because we stay where God has put us. You think we can’t buy new cars or private jets? But by the grace of God we have chosen to have margin so that God can have more to work with. Not because there are no wants to be satisfied but because as a church we have chosen to have margin. You need to have margin in your life. Stop and do a detailed assessment of your earning and spending and of your time. You create margin by earning more and spending less. You spend less by leaning to say No! But some of us reading this today need to say yes to Jesus. Start by making Jesus the centerpiece and He will guide you.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me cut off unnecessary expenditure, time wasters, and energy sappers, in Jesus Name.