Page 112 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

Study Section 14: A Disciple Redeems the Time

“You are disobedient, you are trying to keep some part of your life under your own
control. That is what is preventing you from listening to Christ and believing in his
grace.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

14.1 Connect

The Bible says the average lifespan of a man or woman is about 70 years, give or take. That’s
25,550 days or about 613,200 hours. The Bible also says that someday we will have to give an
accounting of how we used those days and hours. Do we count them precious, or do we
engage in activities that waste those hours – that have no eternal value.

The average American watches around 4 hours of television per day and spends about 3.5 hours per day
on his smart phone. In a lifetime, the average American spends around 100,000 hours watching TV
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and couple that with using his cell phone, a total of 170,000 hours. The question to ask is, “how will that
time consumed with watching TV and facetiming friends on a smart phone be of value in light of
eternity? How many souls came to Christ while we watch TV? Is this the best choice of using our time?

The Bible says that in the future, when we get to Heaven, that God will wipe away all our tears. I truly
believe that those tears will be shed because of all the time wasted on things we did of no eternal value.
When we received Christ as our Savior, God left us here for a purpose. He gave us a command to “go
and make disciples of all nations.” That’s our marching orders! That is what should consume our time
and energies.

C.T. Studd wrote a poem in which he used this phrase over and over: “Only one life will soon be past,
only what’s done for Christ will last.” The Bible says our life is but a vapor that appears for a little time,
then passes away (James 4:14). Ask any person who has aged some, and they will tell you that time
passes very quickly. It seems just like yesterday that they did this or that.

God gives us very limited time to serve Him. Hopefully, instead of having God
wipe away our tears, perhaps we would rather hear him say, “Well done, thou
good and faithful servant.” Today’s study is on redeeming the time that God
gives us. We want it to count for eternity. Let’s see how we can do that…

14.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to share the best use of time.

2. The student should be able to describe four major aspects of time management

3. The student should be able to explain the consequences for wasting the time God has given to us.

42 https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by-us-adults/

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