LEADERSHIP CAPSULE
...committed to raising, mentoring and equipping leaders to ultimately fulfill the great commission.
Monday, December 19, 2016

TITLE : The Efficient Stewardship Of Time 2

Ephesians 5:15-17 " So, then, be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of your time because the times are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is." ISV

A leader needs to be a faithful steward of the resources he oversees. Effective leaders are also good stewards of resources for which they are responsible. They know how to manage them in the best interest of the vision. To become a leader, you must be able to know what resources you have and how to manage them effectively.

Time is one of the precious resources we must manage as stewards. It is the only resource we have in equal measure. We are more gifted in other areas than each other but no one has more or less time than you. Time is so precious. Time is equivalent to life that's why it's called lifetime. Time is a resource not to be wasted. Remember the story of the steward who was wasting resources in Luke 16:1-2. The master called him to order to give an account of his stewardship.
When I look back at my formative years and even now I know that I have not been a good steward of time. I had wasted this precious resource in useless talk, unprofitable reading, useless conversation. Paul calls it "small talk I didn't know better I'd have done better.

Time is very brief. David says in Psalm 89, Remember how short my time is,(v. 47). Life is uncertain. If a person lives his full allotted time of seventy years, he has only 26,000 days to live. None of us knows when physical life will be snatched away, but the Bible admonishes us to count the days not the years. The poet says, Life at its best is short; time flies so very fast. Lord, help me not to waste this day, lest it should be my last. Time is beyond the scope of our control. It cannot be speeded up, nor slowed down, nor stopped, nor turned back. You can make more money but not more time. We cannot return to the days of our youth, and none of us can recapture lost opportunities. And so we are admonished in the Bible to redeem the time – that is, we are to use and manage it wisely.

The word redeem(Eph. 5:16) means “to buy up the time, manage it effectively and maximise so as to get full value out of it.  Did you notice that in our anchor text that there is a relationship between the idea of time and the difference between wisdom and foolishness. "Walk.....as wise; redeeming the time...do not be foolish. But how can we make the best use of our time? What are some right ways to use the time which God allots to us? Time for every one of us is quickly going to run out.

Beloved as leaders we are to redeem the time because the days are evil. The days and hours (into which time is divided) are subject to vanity and corruption (to evil and abuse), and therefore we must guard against wasting this precious resource called time.

Confession : So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psa. 90:12)