Series: Stressed Week 3: Time Out
HOW DO I FIND GOD’S PEACE in MY SCHEDULE?
We are juggling way more than we were designed to handle.
TRUTH: God is the source of the peace I need.
LUKE 10:38-42—Mary & Martha.
3 questions about your schedule:
- Does Your Schedule Include Time with Jesus, or Is It Ordered Around Time with Jesus? Luke 10:38-39. 2 very different attitudes toward the presence of Jesus. Martha made room for Him in her busy schedule, & she welcomed Him into her home. When Jesus showed up, Mary stopped everything she was doing & gave Jesus her full attention. Jesus’ presence was part of Martha’s plan. But Jesus’ presence was Mary’s plan.
TRUTH: As a Christ follower, you will never remove stress from your daily schedule until everything else in your day is ordered around time with Jesus. Conversely: your daily schedule will never be saturated in God’s peace until everything else in your day is ordered around time with Jesus. Time with Jesus ought to be the building block on which the rest of your day’s activity is built.
Jesus was never in a hurry because He lived His life in step with the will of the Father. JOHN 5:17,19-20. Jesus was saying (1), God has specific plans & purposes He carries out each day, & He wants His children to be involved in those plans. (2) Jesus’ primary focus was to understand where the Father was working & how the Father wanted Him to join in His activity in His daily life. JOHN 6:38. REALITY: through His fellowship with the Father, Jesus ordered His life around that which He heard from the Father.
Building our schedule on Jesus means making Him the foundation of our schedule –of our day; our week; our year; our entire lives.
- Is Your Schedule Dictated by What’s Urgent, or Is It Designed to Accomplish What’s Important? LUKE 10:40. Martha allowed her schedule to be dictated by what was urgent rather than by what was most important. Martha allowed her time to be dominated by whatever was in front of her rather than evaluating the best way for her time to be spent. Jesus’ answer to Martha’s is powerful: LUKE 10:41-42.
Mary had chosen what was best because she intentionally structured her day to accomplish what was important rather than being bullied by what was urgent. The only way to accurately determine what’s most important is to figure out what God has chosen to be most important; by intentionally making Him the foundation of our schedules.
- Does Your Schedule Express a Heart Captivated by What’s Eternally Significant, or Is It Distracted by What’s Temporary? Luke 10:40,41. Most of what fills up our time & attracts our attention each day is ultimately meaningless. Insignificant. Temporary. 1 JOHN 2:15-17. We’re chasing a life defined by what’s temporary rather than what’s eternal.
5 Practical Action STEPS YOU CAN TAKE:
Step 1: Establish your daily rhythm with Jesus.
Step 2: Determine what’s most important in your life. Truth: you won’t build your schedule around what’s most important unless you understand what’s most important.
Step 3: Build a plan for your daily life around what’s most important. BTW: if you have more on your schedule than you can realistically accomplish in a day, then there are things on your schedule God didn’t put there & doesn’t want there.
Step 4: Create margin within the plan for your daily life. Jesus was often interrupted, but He was never off course from God’s agenda. Those interruptions never interfered with His agenda because He left margin in His schedule.
Step 5: Establish accountability to eliminate distractions. make sure your actions reflect God’s realities.