(So Bro. Ryan corrected my math and I will attempt to correct it in this post in green. Like originally posted, I'm a mathematic dunce and am unashamed to admit it. Fortunately I was only a little off in the final summation......I think. :)
I once read a lesson about Tithing Our Time.
Hmmmmmmm.
(okay, first let me admit that I am HORRIBLE AT MATH...SO I WON'T NECESSARILY CLAIM THAT MY FIGURES ARE CORRECT! :o) But if you want to re-calculate (said in my best Garmin voice)...then please help me out! Ha! (Thanks Bro. Ryan!)
24 hours in a day.
Which would mean 2 hours and 24 minutes per day.
Which would be 16 hours and 48 minutes a week.
Time spent at church weekly if you attend Sunday AM / PM and Wednesday nights = approx. 6-7 hours per week. (faithful attendance comes in handy here!)
Our approx. local church schedule:
Sunday AM: 9:45- 12:15 = 2 hours 30 minutes
Sunday Night: 6:00 - 8:00 = 2 hours
Wednesday Night: 7:00-9:00 = 2 hours
So that leaves approximately 10 hours and 18 minutes needed per week.
That means approx. 1 hour and 30 minutes per day (rounding up 12 minutes one day) needed to complete the tithe.
Then there is the whole concept of Cheerfully giving our Time as an offering unto The Lord. (round up as desired.)
So how much time per day do I spend in Prayer and Bible Study? (I'm not going to answer that publically. :)
An ABM Bible Study, revival or convention would help out wouldn't it? ;)
Hmmmmmm
I could easily spend 1.5-2 hours a day doing something else without a thought...however, I know it would take a conscious effort by most to make sure we stop our busy schedules and give up to 2 hours per day to the Lord.
So if we consciously think about tithing and offering our time per day...then that would leave no time for...
complaining
criticizing
worrying
judging
grudging
idleness
missing church
or even blogging! Ha!
I'm unaware of any Biblical scripture dictating such a practice...(closest I guess is "pray without ceasing".)
And of course we don't need to be legalistic with ourselves or each other. "Oh no! I haven't tithed my time today!!!!" or "I put my 2 hours in...what about you!" Absolutely not!
So basically, the writer of that lesson was trying to explain that Christians consider time as a gift from God...then as a natural course all Christians would wish to give back a good bit of that time to God. A lot of Christians give God back a WHOLE lot more.
So it's a natural outflow for Christians...not a forced command from God. We wouldn't want OUR little children to say..."Oh no! I have to spend 2 hours with Mom today!" or "I spent four hours with you yesterday...today I'm FREE!!!"
Eph 5:14-17 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Just thinking out loud again....and feel free to correct my math. Ha! :)
5 comments:
Well, technically a tenth of a day would be about 2 hours and 24 minutes. Which would be 16 hours and 48 minutes a week. But the principle is still the same. Good thoughts.
I TOLD you I wasn't a mathematician! Ha! I'm so bad at math...I'm not even embarrassed anymore. :) :) My math teacher would throw stuff at me in class.
So....keep going...what are the final calculations so we can make it correct?
Oooh, interesting thoughts! But how can we give God back our time if our whole life is His anyway?
Romans 12:1 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
I don't think of my communication with God as something that is turned on and off. I enjoy sitting down and having a long conversation with my husband, or a romantic dinner date, but I also live a life daily with him that includes the humdrum stuff.
Just a thought. :-)
Rachel,
I agree with you.
Same as with our money I guess.
All of our money and possessions are His anyway. But He expects a conscious and cheerful acknowledgement/effort of 10%. (yes, it supports the ministry), but He is our ultimate provider anyway...so why does He NEED our $ to support the ministry?
Same with prayers. God knows our every thought, our every move and the very intents of our actions and the innermost of our souls. Perfectly capable of answering those prayers/needs before we speak them...even before we even know what we need to pray for.
So why pray at all?
Why go to Church when we can feel His presence at home?
Because God wants us to. It is His will.
He wants us to purposely set aside some time to personally and "consciously" and cheerfully communicate with Him.
We live our humdrum lives with
God, feeling His presence, but even Jesus set aside (a lot more then a 10th I'm very sure!) a specific time of conscious prayer and attendance.
I totally agree, we shouldn't turn our communication "off and on".
BUT.....I'm a teacher and I don't always teach mature Christians. I'm only maturing myself it seems....not there yet. Even when I teach completely mature Christians, I think we sometimes need to look at things at a different angle to bring our attention to them again.....Something to help us re-think our busy days, something to help us re-examine our busy schedules.
A Tithing 10th is really a baseline comparison when it comes to our finances. We start there and once we learn the Godly principals of giving...the joys of giving...the blessings of giving... Then the Tithing 10th happens without thought perhaps...a common thing in our lives...while we consciously focus on greater giving.
Same with prayer. Whether Mature or young in Christ.......We can examine our schedules and perhaps apply the same baseline of the financial 10th to it also?
It was just a thought by another writer and I wondered what it all broke down to, based on my own schedule.
With the 10th in mind, some Christians might go..."Oh, that's too little time! I consciously give more time than that to God!" Their baseline was established long ago and they quickly found out the joys and blessings of giving much more!
But then there are many whose schedules are so packed...so busy...that it seems difficult to even stop and read the Word, pray, etc.
Here the concept of the baseline of the 10th might serve as a reminder, a nudge, to re-adjust those schedules & re-evaluate their importance.
I'm sure that if the 10th baseline is consciously and cheerfully began...then very soon the young or neglectful Christian will quickly discover the principles, joys and blessings of consciously giving more time...dedicated soley to God. Daniel did, David did, Job did and ENOCH did.
Not a doctrine I'm sure...but just a little different thot angle on a common subject.
Thank you for this post! I have often thought about the "tithing my time" thing. I enjoyed the thoughts in your comment above as much as the post itself! Really good thoughts. Like you said, not a set-in-stone doctrine, but it certainly makes you re-evaluate your life and the use you make of your time. Well, MY time anyway!
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