17. Time Management

17. Time Management: Use Your Time Well!

Today, I want to talk to you about Time Management.

Friends, welcome to Intervention, an outreach of VISION BUILDERS designed to help undergraduates contact divine intervention for academic victories. Intervention brings you inspirational messages and Study Tips to enable you be your best academically! Through this message, we believe that God is set to bless you by removing every barrier against your academic success and fulfillment.

Time has been defined as ‘A period considered as a resource under your control and sufficient to accomplish something’. Every passing moment in time is a unit of your life and how you use it will directly impact on your achievements in life. Although man has wisely divided time into seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years, decades and centuries, the most critical unit of time is the next second. What will you do with it?

Time is a valuable resource. You should invest it in promoting your academic goals and a bright professional future. Time in itself is nothing. It is the good use you make of it today that will set you on a platform of prominence later on in life. An old adage advises to make hay while the sun shines.

Time impacts different levels of students differently. For Freshmen, it seems you have so much freedom to do whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it. For the final year students, it seems time has suddenly run to a close. For those in-between, you wonder what tomorrow will bring. But time is a common denominator to all. While some will invest in it to gain very good grades and a good graduate degree, some others will fritter it away in vices and less important pursuits and end up with poor grades, poor degrees and poor lives. What will you have to say for yourself at the end of your degree program? No one is to blame for how you use your undergraduate time today. No one will live in the results you generate by using your time wisely or foolishly.

In the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew Chapter 25, the Lord Jesus taught about wise time management. He taught that by focusing on the task at hand, we can always get our expected results out of available time.

In this parable of the ten virgins, He said “Five were silly and five were smart. The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom didn't show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep. "In the middle of the night someone yelled out, 'He's here! The bridegroom's here! Go out and greet him!' "The ten virgins got up and got their lamps ready. The silly virgins said to the smart ones, 'Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.' "They answered, 'There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.' "They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was locked. "Much later, the other virgins, the silly ones, showed up and knocked on the door, saying, 'Master, we're here. Let us in.' "He answered, 'Do I know you? I don't think I know you.'  Jesus ended the parable with a warning - stay alert! In this context we can say, be on time!

There will always be consequences for how we use available time. Regret, if we waste available time, or rejoicing, if we wisely use our time well.

Time for a specific task will not always be available because time once lost can never be regained. Time does not usually wait for anyone to put things in order, so ensure you use your time well!

For those foolish virgins, it was too late to achieve their initial goals. I pray that such will never be your experience in Jesus’ name. God will give you the grace and wisdom to use your time well. The door of life and success will never be shut in your face in Jesus’ name. You will be smart to walk through the door of opportunity at the right time when the door is open.

It was the wisest king to ever live who once said, To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven.

This is the season and time you have to make academic success of your life.  Use your time well. It has been said, Work today and play tomorrow, but if you play today, you will definitely have to work hard to survive tomorrow.

How have you used your undergraduate time so far? Are there areas where you feel you have not shown wisdom in time management? For some of you, your foolish actions have put your academic life and future into very precarious dimensions. I am also aware that for a number of you, the time is too short to humanly make any reasonable changes. But I bring you good news today.

I bring you the good news that God can turn your times around. I bring you good news that God wants to intervene in your situation. He wants to move in your academics by granting you a second chance miracle. What is a second chance miracle?

A second chance miracle is God giving you something you cannot humanly achieve given the available time and resources. The man Samson experienced a second chance miracle. By his carelessness he lost his anointing and supernatural strength and got captured by the enemy. But Samson did one simple thing that connected him to a second chance miracle. Samson prayed. In Judges 16:28, he cried out to God, “Oh God, please, look on me again, Oh, please, give me strength one more time.” And God gave him such a tremendous victory.

Now some may be wondering, “This is my final year. Can anything change in my academics? Can God still turn things around for me? What He did for Samson, He will for you, if you dare to believe, trust Him and start changing your ways today. Start using your time properly for the rest of your stay in school, and you will indeed experience an academic miracle. Can you dare to believe this? Then let’s go to God in prayer right now. But first, you need to acknowledge your old ways and repent before God. After that, the way will be open to receive a second chance miracle.

I want to lead you in a prayer of repentance. Why not join me right now. Say this simple prayer:  Dear Lord and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for this opportunity today. I confess that because I have used my time foolishly, some things look bad for me academically right now. But I have heard that you gave Samson a second chance. Please, look on me again. Please, give me strength again through your miraculous help in Jesus name. Amen.

Now, I want to pray for you. Just agree with me in faith. Matthew 18:19 states, “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.”

Father, I pray for your divine intervention in the life and academics of the young man and woman reading this message right now. For the one with the financial difficulty please send a miraculous supply right now. Let the freshness and brightness of your glory be manifested and experienced in their lives. I pray for the roommate who needs a touch of God. Touch her right now, in Jesus name. Thank you Lord for hearing and answering prayer today, in Jesus’ name.

I believe that God has touched you through this message. If you have any testimonies from this message or would like to ask questions, or have someone pray with you concerning your academics, please call 0817 2239 319 or send an email to buildyourvisions@gmail.com

Continue to expect the best from yourself and continue to maintain a great attitude regardless whatever happens.

I’ll be glad to hear from you. Kindly send your testimonies, questions and prayer requests as responses on this blog. If you’d like your friends, class mates and room-mates to be helped by Intervention messages and Study Tips, kindly share this message with them.

Thank you for joining me. I remain your host Tope Banjo and this is Intervention. God bless you mightily!

You will succeed. You will make it!

Contact:

Email: buildyourvisions@gmail.com 

Tel: +234 817 2239 319, Lagos-Nigeria.

…………….