Viewing Our Time As Worship

By Samantha Rodriguez

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”—Romans 12:1–2 (NIV)

I don’t know about you, but there are quite a few things in my life that easily become huge time wasters without me even knowing it. One of them is scrolling on Instagram, or for some, it may be Tik Tok, the news, or Facebook. Perhaps it isn’t a digital problem for you, but it’s being consumed with your work or hobbies. Anything in life can become an unhealthy addition to our schedules if we let it take precedence over our relationship with God, and everyone falls short in this area somehow. That should be reassuring, but it should also be a challenge for us to be determined to take back our wasted time and devote it to the Lord!

The way we spend our time is a form of worship—and I don’t just mean the time we spend listening to worship music or going to church. I mean the way we schedule each day and how go about our ordinary, everyday lives. Brother Lawrence had an incredible view on time that you can read about in Practicing the Presence of God. Here is a snippet of what Brother Lawrence believed, “That we should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence, by continually conversing with Him. . . . That he was pleased when he could take up a straw from the ground for the love of God, seeking Him only, and nothing else, not even His gifts.”

This is what Paul’s talking about in Romans 12:1–2. In this passage, we’re reminded of four things:

Our surrender is our worship!

When we surrender our lives to Christ, we offer Him the truest and sweetest form of worship. We honor Him when we give Him back what He made in the first place!

Our worship is a living sacrifice!

The beauty of our sacrifice is that we die to ourselves so we can be made alive in Christ! When we surrender to Christ, we gain a truly abundant and meaningful life.

Our living sacrifice leads to transformation!

As Paul exclaimed, not conforming to the world, renewing our mind, and being transformed in our inner being comes as a result of willingly surrendering every part of our lives, including our schedules, to His hand.

Our transformation includes the way we spend our time!

Finally, our surrender allows us to know and recognize His will more easily because we’ll better know His voice and heart! This means we can make every moment meaningful by recognizing God’s presence with us in everything.

Our lives are made up of many moments. Those moments add up and can pass us by in the blink of an eye if we don’t view each moment as meaningful. How will you view your time this week?

Pause: What are the biggest time wasters in your life right now? How can you take steps to put them under control?

Practice: Think about how you can be generous with your time today. Perhaps you can set aside an extra 30 minutes to be present with God instead of doing more work, or take some time to bless someone else or call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while.

Pray: Father, thank You for Your willingness to transform my heart as I surrender to You! I want to worship You sacrificially, and that includes being generous with my time so I can live more intentionally for You and with You. Convict me of the areas I’m withholding from You. Shape me more into Your image and draw me deeper into communion with You so I may recognize Your will more clearly. I surrender! Amen.