The Gifts of Christmas - Hope - Audio

God, because He decided to use us to accomplish His mission in this world, calls us His “ambassadors.” We are called to be God’s voice to reconcile people to Himself. This includes the willingness to speak up and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

As followers of Christ, we have been chosen by the God of the universe as His prized possession. We are chosen and set apart through Christ our Savior. This has all happened for a specific purpose which is to allow us to proclaim the goodness of God to those who still find themselves in the darkness.

The world has certain patterns to it that do not lead to a full life. Greed, anger, jealousy, materialism, and dishonesty are just a few of them. Paul instructs us in the book of Romans to no longer conform or blend in with the ways of the world, but instead we are to live as transformed people. Transformation doesn’t happen by accident; it is an intentional way of daily living.

Jesus was busy. But he was never in a hurry. He had counted the cost of his time, and knew exactly what he should do in order to fulfill his mission on earth. We can do the same by budgeting our time, and protecting it based on our priorities. However, we should always remember that our verdict is sealed regardless of our productivity. God doesn’t need us to finish our to-do lists. This freedom should allow us to work hard because we want to be a part of redeeming God’s creation.

If you’ve ever felt unequipped or unsure of yourself or your call from God, you’re certainly not alone. All throughout scripture God calls people who make excuses, feel insecure, don’t like themselves, ore don’t believe they’re the right person for the job. And guess what, he proved time and time again that His call on their lives and ours is ON purpose, FOR a purpose.

We live in a celebrity culture and often that affects the church as well and keeps God’s people from experiencing the powerful life He intended for us, because all through Scripture and down through history we see that God takes ordinary people, in ordinary places and empowers them to do extraordinary things!

We live in a “hustle” culture. If you want to get more done, the world will often tell you to “work harder,” “burn the midnight oil,” or “sleep when you’re dead.” But the biblically-based, scientifically-verified truth is that rest is a counterintuitive key to being wildly productive. In order to do more, most of us need to do less and rest more.

When Jesus came to earth, he temporarily traded in his Godly omnipresence and accepted the unipresence of being a human being. He could only be in one place at a time. He had to prioritize the many good things pulling at his attention because he was laser-focused on “finishing the work the Father gave him.” We can apply these principles of prioritizing our yeses and accepting our unipresence to our work and lives today.

As we look to the life of Christ for principles of time management, we notice that Jesus always ensured his “yes” was “yes,” from the smallest to the biggest commitments. He also fought to block out noise and create room for silence, stillness, and reflection, which we see all throughout the Gospels as he retreated to “lonely places.”

Time is something that if not managed well can easily feel like gets away from us very quickly. Have you even tried to manage your time, but feel like you just don’t have enough of it? How do we make sure that we are accomplishing our every day life tasks, as well as preparing ourselves for the work God has for us when there just doesn’t seem to be enough time? Today we will look at 5 biblical truths about our time, and how we can better manage the precious time God has given us.