I recently finished highlighting my way through the book of Matthew.
As I read through this gospel, I took special note of how Jesus managed His time and priorities. Here are three time management lessons from the life of our Lord that I think we would do well to imitate in our own lives.
1. Jesus Prioritized His Time Around His Purpose
From the moment Jesus launches into ministry, He is laser-focused on His mission.
Matthew describes how, “he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” (4:23).
He didn’t waste a moment.
We also have a mission. Jesus has left us here not just to wait around until He returns. There’s work to do. And each of us has a unique gifting, circumstances, and resources which make up our stewardship.
Faithfulness with these things is your mission. And we should be intentionally managing our time around this.
Too often, however, we lose sight of our purpose and drift. Or worse, we build our schedules around lesser priorities like money, prestige, or comfort; elevating them to idols. But if we want to be like Christ, we should fix our eyes on the mission and order our time around faithfully discharging our duties for the glory of our Father in Heaven.
2. Jesus Prioritized His Time Around His People
Frequently, we see our purpose and people in competition.
But Jesus didn’t seem to view it that way at all. We treat people like distractions from the mission, but Jesus saw them as part of it.
I could multiply examples for this, but here are three:
- In Matthew 8:1–4 Jesus ignores the crowds to show compassion to a single leper.
- In Matthew 9:18–26 Jesus is on His way to heal the daughter of an important man, when He is interrupted by a woman with the issue of blood. He pauses to heal her.
- In Matthew 19:13–15, the disciples would prevent children from coming to Him. But Jesus welcomes them.
The point is, Jesus was mission-focused, but He was also available.
Jesus didn’t see people as interruptions; He saw them as part of the mission. And we would be wise to do the same.
Jesus said the second greatest commandment was to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 29:39). That’s true whether you find yourself in church, at the office, or shoveling the driveway.
True productivity isn’t just completing the to-do list; it’s living a life in service to God and neighbor. We might have a project we are trying to focus on, and when an opportunity to serve a neighbor comes our way, it can seem like a distraction. But “I’m too busy to love” is not the slam-dunk excuse we think it is.
3. Jesus Prioritized His Time Around His Prayer Life
Reading through Matthew as slowly as I did, I found myself continually impressed by Jesus’ prayer life.
Whether it was at the feeding of the 5,000 (14:19) or in the Gethsemane (26:36–46), our Lord’s prayers were deep, heartfelt, and numerous. So much so that it evidently led the disciples to ask Him to teach them to pray (6:5-15).
Despite His busyness, Jesus always made time to pray. Most of us, however, simply don’t prioritize prayer as we ought. When push comes to shove in our schedules, prayer is the thing that gets shoved right off the cliff.
But if the second person of the Trinity needed to prioritize prayer, how can we possibly justify neglecting it? Especially if we are concerned with living fruitfully. After all, apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5).
Skipping prayer to “save time” is like being on a road trip and saying you don’t have time to stop for gas. You can’t really be surprised when you peter out on the highway, when you’ve been failing to fuel up.
In the same way, when we fail to pray, we are cutting ourselves off from the power source. That’s not smart time management. That’s just dumb.
Three Takeaways
So let me wrap this up with three takeaways.
- Prioritize purpose. Get clear on what exactly it is God wants you to do. And don’t get distracted.
- Make time for people. Never be too busy to love people.
- Don’t neglect prayer. Make it a priority.
