The Language of Christmas

Part 3: Quality Time

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Summary

You can tell a lot about a person based on how they spend their money and how they spend their time. Based on your schedule, is it obvious who and what is important to you? Each of us gets the same twenty-four-hour period in a day, but we all have an unknown number of days to live. The goal of the Christ-follower is to make much of Jesus and to put others first. If someone took a deep dive into how you spend your time, especially at Christmas, would it be obvious to them that Christ is at the center of it all? Would it be obvious to them that the people in your life matter and that loving them well is at the core of who you are? Regardless of a person’s love language, the time you spend with them matters. Whether it’s keeping long-held traditions, cultivating new experiences, or just carving out time to support and encourage, we all need quality time to receive love. More than anything you do this year, know that the time you spend loving others and, most importantly, pointing them to Jesus, will not be wasted.

Content
Time, Money, & Priorities

All of us have been blessed with a new day each morning. But Scripture tells us that A person’s days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed (Job 14:5). Our God has set limits for us, and He expects us to make the most of what He has allotted us. We have limited time, and as with all limited resources, we’d be wise to budget it well. 

We spend our time in a different way than we spend our money. We can save money, but we can’t save time; it’ll keep passing regardless of what we do. So, we have to choose. Every second of our lives, we’re spending our time. The clock is always ticking, and we need a healthy sense of urgency. 

Although we cannot store time up in a bank, we can invest it in the people around us. We can take God’s gift to us, and present it back to Him in love. Let’s consider money once again. The poor woman in Luke 21 gave just two copper coins to the temple treasury. And yet, Jesus said she’d given more than the rich had, because she gave up all she had to her name. The posture of the heart is more important than the size of the gift. 

Unlike with money, we all have the same number of hours in a day. We may be tempted to believe that we have less time than others simply because of how many responsibilities we’ve taken on. But the truth is, everything we do, we do because we’ve prioritized it. Five minutes here and there for Bible reading does not make you like the poor woman at the temple if even ten minutes out of your day goes to scrolling through social media. 

Priorities are important. They are how we go about budgeting our time! But the danger comes when we stop analyzing those priorities. We should regularly be taking account of how we spend the time God has given us.

Our time belongs to Him; it was never ours to begin with, and we couldn’t earn it. So, we need to steward it well. Pay close attention to how your time is allocated over the next week. Ask yourself if it’s really the case that you’re too busy to do X. Be on the lookout for opportunities to use the time God has given you for what He calls you to do. 

Quality Over Quantity

This week’s love language is quality time. But what makes the time we spend with others quality? Why isn’t spending time, on its own, enough?

Have you ever felt alone in a crowded room? We can spend hours with people without talking about spiritual matters at all. We can be with someone without knowing what’s on their mind or on their heart. It’s one thing to be present physically, but we need to be spiritually and emotionally present to show others love through quality time. 

We need to be intentional about what we give our attention. The three wise men, also called the Magi, followed the star from Babylon to Jerusalem — over 900 miles! 

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

— Matthew 2:1-2

Could you imagine the focus such a journey would require? Traveling in those days had greater inconveniences than airport security and flight delays! And yet, the Magi stayed true to their mission to come to worship baby Jesus. They knew the importance of spending time with a purpose. They understood how presence can communicate love. We can be quite confident that, when the Magi finally arrived, they made the most of their time with the Newborn King. 

Through His presence, Jesus has blessed us and shown us the greatest love by spending time with us. Although the ramifications of sin banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, Jesus came back for us so that we could one day return to the presence of God. He made Himself present with man in the flesh, despite of the fact that it came at the cost of torture, mocking, and death. 

Our God is so good! He did not stay in heaven apart from us, but instead came to be with us and suffer under the weight of our sin. True quality time can mean sacrificing some of our 24 hours for someone else. It means being there even when it’s difficult. 

Jesus shows us the perfect example.

RESOURCES:

2022 RHCC Advent Devotional 

Christmas: The Power of Perspective // Inn Keeper // Jeff Simmons

God's Dwelling Place // The Tabernacle // Jeff Simmons

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