Council Grove Christian Church

11/20/25
Servants of God,
 
“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way,
as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
-1 Timothy 4:7,8
 
You have heard the term “multi-tasking”. We often find ourselves engaged in more than one important activity at the same time. There is never enough time, or so we say. What if we did better in our stewardship of our time. What if we did better at using the small portions of time? “Let’s take five…” is part of the idiom of the English language. It signals the need (or at least the opportunity) to take a short break from an endeavor or an activity. Life always has some element of rhythm. We need both activity and rest. Our time is limited. We need to use it well. What if we had a conscious, intentional stewardship of small faithfulness?
 I hear Christians say they find it hard to “find time” for Christian disciplines like Bible reading, scripture memorization and prayer. I get it, but  want to suggest that, as Christians, we should consider the potential value of even a short amount of time designated for the elements of personal spiritual growth. If a short rest can bring value to life, why can’t a few minutes designated for productivity be helpful?
I am very grateful for the early years of my Christian ministry. Before there were all the responsibilities that I now have accrued, I spent hours at a time reading and studying. Of course it was before the internet, so there was less temptation to be like a bee and flit from one document to the next. We had books then. You do remember books?
Those days quickly passed, and since then reading, prayer and study have been more of a challenge. The phone rings, the texts ding, the emails wait to be read and if needed, generate a response. Staying on task is often nearly impossible at times.
So, how do we as Christians find time to train ourselves in godliness (1 Timothy 4)? At least in part, we must be flexible and grasp the time that is available. It is important to have designated times and activities for our spiritual training. Routine and regularity can be either our servants or our masters.  I am pretty good about daily Bible intake and prayer, but I also want to take in good teaching and engage in special times of prayer throughout the day. I don’t know about you, but good intention alone has never yielded much fruit for me. I intend to read or pray or meditate. I intend to.
Smart phones are actually only as smart as the guy or gal controlling the device. One potentially helpful feature is the timer. It is possible to use it as an aid to reading, study, prayer or meditation. This morning I used the boundary that the phone timer gave me. I allotted time segments for working on projects. I am trying to clean up and reorganize our garage before Winter. I am doing it a few minutes at a time. Ten to thirty minutes is not a long time for cleaning and organizing, but over the period of a week, several short segments of time added up. I find that I can either lament not having time for Bible reading or I can “take ten” and read at least something. What I find, more often than not, is that ten minutes stretches into fifteen or twenty. Sad to say, but often, I do not have a time deficit at all. What I have is a discipline deficit. The timer on the phone does not create time. It helps me steward my time. It is a tool that, if I choose, I can employ to the glory of God. It is not magic, just a mechanical aid. Like a stopwatch can be an aid for a runner while doing bodily training, the timer on the phone can serve as an aid in spiritual training in godliness.
 
We are grated time by God. Our times, the Psalmist wrote, are in God’s hands (Ps.31:15). There is wonderful blessing in training ourselves to be godly. Of course the Holy Spirit is our personal trainer but we still have to make time for the spiritual gym sessions.
 
Blessings,
Pastor John
 
Coram Deo