Our Present Needs Part 3: The Need for Guidance of the Best Use of Our Time

I have been using notes I took from this year's Banner of Truth Conference during Iaian Murray's talk "Our Present Needs." This last section I found most helpful and the cause for much reflection.


1 Corinthians 3 teaches us that what we do in our own flesh will be burned up, but what Christ does in us will last. So let's be careful how we build:

6 Suggestions:

1) Have a regular time of looking at your life with no distractions. In his book, Between Two Worlds, John Stott described how he would regularly take a weekend away by himself to reflect on where he has been and where he is going and to work out a long-term calendar. My wife has forced me to break away and take a few retreats of that sort myself and I have found them most helpful.

2) Watch your temperament. If you are naturally outgoing, you probably need to purposefully spend more time in the study. If you are naturally introverted, you probably need to be out more telling others about your faith.

3) Read only the best books. There are so many books out there that you could read, but most are not worth reading. There are enough great books to keep you busy. Only read great books.
And read these books with pencil in hand. Take notes so that you can recall what you have read. Murray would create an index on a piece of paper as he read, that he would later tape into the back of his book- he does not like the idea of marking books up. At least, he suggested, use a pencil so you can later erase your marks. I see the wisdom of that now that I read notes I wrote years back in the margins of my books that, at the time, I thought profound, and which I now find utterly ridiculous. What I have grown fond of is taking notes as I read in a Moleskine notebook which I index in the back.

4) Be sure not to let e-mail and websites to control your day.

5) Do not lose time on controversies. There are some controversies which you simply cannot remain silent on. But most you can let pass by- they are simply not worth it. Soon they will pass without you wasting your precious time on them.

6) Do not see in your churches what you can not change. Murray shared how, while working at Lloyd-Jones' church, he and his fellow workers noticed that the children's program there was severely lacking and Jones wasn't doing anything about it. Jones' motto, they found out to "not see in your churches what you can not change." At the time, Murray was frustrated, but now he sees the wisdom in it. There was nothing that Jones could have done that would have ended well. Too many feelings would have been hurt and nothing good could have come of it. So he simply chose not to see it, and entrust it all to God.

Now that is some advice I could have used many a times in my past!