How Should A Christian Spend ALLLLL Their Spare Time?

An Indian once commenting on the idea of Daylight Savings Time said, “Only a white man thinks he can take a blanket, cut off the top, sew it to the bottom, and think he has a longer blanket.” I love Daylight Savings Time but not in the spring when you lose an hour springing forward, but in the fall when you gain an hour falling back. For the first time all year you think you have some spare time. But use it wisely because in the spring you have to give it back.

Is there really such a thing as spare time? Just ask a young mother with four young children. You might as well talk about the Easter Bunny and leprechauns. The truth is God has not given us spare time. The idea that you have plenty of time to spare and do what you want to do has been a temptation and pitfall for many. Perhaps this is why Paul tells us to make the best use of our time, instead of making good use of our time. Instead of making spare time we need to be “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16).

If spare time is idle time, then keep in mind the old saying, “idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.” This is so true…

• Just ask Aaron. While his brother Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, he was down below with rest of the children of Israel. While he was idle he made an idol for them. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us” (Ex. 32:1).
• After Jonah finally was persuaded to go preach in Nineveh, he thought he had some spare time to just sit on a hill and wait for the cities’ destruction (Jonah 4:5).
• King Saul found himself waiting for Samuel to come offer a sacrifice to God before the Israelites went to battle with the Philistines. He went ahead in his impatience, prepared an alter, and sacrificed without a priest (1 Sam. 13:5-10).
• Even King David in his “spare” time got himself into some big trouble. “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold” (2 Sam. 11:1,2). If he had been out with the army like other kings, he would not have called for Bathsheba, committed adultery with her, called her husband home to cover up his sin, get him drunk, and even found the spare time to have his general have Uriah killed.
• The great prophet of Israel Elijah had just won a resounding victory over Jezebel’s prophets of Baal. Then the queen was after all the prophets to kill them and Elijah was on the run for his life. “He himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!” (1 Kings 19:4). Elijah thought he had the spare time to just lay down and die, but God sent him on three missions before his time on earth was up
• Then there is Peter and some of the other disciples who thought they had spare time to go fishing after Jesus’ resurrection (John 21:1ff)./li>

Truth be told, there is not such thing as “spare” time.

For the sake of argument let us just say that from time to time you find some spare time. What should you do with it?

• First, you could call up and talk to your Father, that is God, your heavenly Father. When Nehemiah was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, he was asked “What do you request?” Nehemiah’s response: “so I prayed to the God of heaven” (Neh. 2:4).
• Even Jesus “in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35).
• To three of Jesus’ disciples who thought they had spare time in the Garden of Gethsemane to sleep, Jesus gave this advice, ‘watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).
• Many of those who think they have spare time will get in touch with their friends to hang out. Perhaps you have made friends with God’s children. They of course are more than just friends but brothers and sisters in Christ. So use your time to call up a brother or visit or e-mail them. The elderly are often lonely and the new converts need your strength. So spend time with your friends who make up your church family.
• What do others do with their spare time? They relax with a good book and catch up on some reading. There is no other book better to read than the “Good Book” or God’s Word, the Bible (see 2 Tim. 2:15). You can even access it on your phone to read just about anywhere. For those of you who are technologically challenged you can carry a small Bible in you purse or glove box, etc. Other spare time reading could include read church bulletins, tracts, and of course your Bible Class lessons.
• One of the things I enjoy with some extra time is to catch up on sleep. Since I lost an hour last night, I guess I will have to wait till fall. However, Jesus invites us to find rest in Him now. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).
• Have I ever mentioned my good friend Russ, well his father, Arthur, loved to go fishing in his spare time. Jesus liked the idea of using your time to go fishing. He told his disciples, some of them who were fishermen by trade, “’Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ They immediately left their nets and followed Him” (Mark 1:17,18). There are plenty of fish in the sea they say, but there is always someone who is lost in the sea of sin anywhere you go.
• If you find some spare time on your hands, God suggests “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Meditating on God and His will is a best use of spare time.
• All of us make plans to succeed in business, but how about focusing on doing the will of God. “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:13-17). Failing to do what you know you should do is a clear waste of time and the sin of omission.
• Quite of few of us need to exercise. They will as soon as they can find some spare time to get to the gym. Spiritual exercise does not require a gym membership or equipment. Furthermore it is far more profitable. But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4;7-8).

So, keep a list of things like this to do when you don’t know what to do with your spare time. However, keep in mind no one really has time to spare or waste doing just anything they want. Paul wrote, “knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:11,12). Perhaps you will find the time to read this article in the fall when Daylight Savings Time ends, and you have an extra hour in your day.
– Daniel R. Vess