Keeping Your Commitments

15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

God commands us to ‏ ‏“Make the most of every opportunity.‏ ‏” Why? So that we can understand and do what the Lord wants you and I to do do. ‏‏

So, now that we know God ‏ ‏does‏ ‏ care about how we manage our time, how do we “make the best use of our time”? Where can we look for an example?‏ Well, like with everything else in our lives, God has provided us with the ‏ ‏perfect‏ ‏ example in Jesus Christ. ‏

We talked about this last week, but in case you missed it, ‏ ‏We looked at how can Jesus help me manage my time well?‏ ‏ He didn’t have a smartphone. He didn’t have emails pinging him day in and day out. Life was different in the first century.‏

And, you’re right. Jesus didn’t have an Apple watch. He didn’t have to choose between doing his quiet time or answering messages. He didn’t spend hours scrolling on his Instagram feed. ‏

However, as Hebrews 4:15 reminds us,

Hebrews 4:15 NLT

15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

Jesus was fully God and fully human and the Bible teaches that he understood everything that we go through, including our efforts to make the best use of our time. ‏

When you look at the Gospels you see Jesus was interrupted, and his attention was demanded. Here are just a couple of examples: ‏

Jesus is going to heal Jairus’s daughter when he is distracted by the woman grasping his cloak. Mark 5:21-34

Mark 5:21–34 NLT

21 Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. 22 Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, 23 pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.” 24 Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. 25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. 30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” 31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

In another instance, Jesus was teaching in a house full of people and a sick man was dropped ‏ ‏through the roof‏ ‏ so that Jesus could heal him. Luke 5:17-26

Luke 5:17–26 NLT

17 One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, 19 but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” 21 But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 23 Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? 24 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” 25 And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!”

I don’t think any of us have had someone dropped on us from the ceiling as we were teaching. That probably caused a bit of distraction. I’m sure it was difficult for Jesus to jump right back into teaching after that.‏

Okay, so Jesus ‏ ‏did‏ ‏ have to deal with time management issues. Last week, we saw the first of seven principles for how Jesus managed his time. Jesus started with the word, prioritizing time with his Father above everything else.

Today, we will see two more timeless time management principles from the life of Christ. ‏

2. Keep Your Commitments Matthew 5:37‏

Matthew 5:37 NLT

37 Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.

Here’s Principle #2: ‏ ‏Keep Your Commitments: To make the best use of our time like Jesus did, we must ensure that keep our commitments from the smallest to the biggest commitments we make.

I’m going to define a new term for you - open loop commitment.‏

Open Loop Commitment

An open loop is a commitment you have made to yourself or others, big or small. If I’m on a call with you and I say, “I’ll send you a link to that book once we hop off,” I have made a commitment to you. That is an open loop. You close the loop if you actually do what you said you would do. ‏

We all have open loops and missed commitments. We told a friend we would come to their event, and then when the day arrived, we completely forgot. Or you promised your boss that you would send her a draft proposal by Wednesday, but things came up and you weren’t able to get to it. ‏

In isolation, these don’t seem like that big of a deal. However, failing to do the things you say you’re going to do is a much bigger deal than letting something “slip through the cracks.” It’s a matter of trust. And because it’s a matter of trust, the stress that open loops cause should (and in my experience, often do) affect Christ-followers in significant and negative ways. ‏

Why? Because Jesus has commanded that …

Matthew 5:37 The Living Bible

37 Say just a simple ‘Yes, I will’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Your word is enough. To strengthen your promise with a vow shows that something is wrong.

Author and teacher, Jen Wilkin, states it so eloquently in her book, ‏ ‏In His Image‏ ‏:‏

Do we [Christians] do what we say we will do? Do we let our yes be yes and our no be no?...Ultimately, every act of faithfulness toward others is an act of faithfulness toward God himself. Though others may make commitments they have little intention of keeping, the children of God strive to prove that their word is their bond. They do so not to win the trust or approval of others, but because they long to be like Christ. They long to hear with their ears, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”‏

In addition to being a command of Jesus, when we fail to keep our commitments, or in other words, fail to close our open loops, we feel anxiety and stress. This is backed by science and scripture.

First, science:

Ziegarnik Effect

There is a scientific term called the Ziegarnik Effect, which is essentially what happens when you hear a bad song on the radio, turn the radio off, and then can’t get the song out of your head for the rest of the day. Your mind will keep replaying the song over and over again until it finally finishes it all the way through. ‏

Now having a song stuck in your head is annoying, but not a big deal. However, if we apply this same principle to the open loops caused by un-externalized tasks and commitments, it incr eases your anxiety because you will focus on the open loops instead of what you are doing at that moment. It increases anxiety and decreases your ability to focus at work and at home.

When you forget to pick up your prescription for the 4th time, you aren’t forgetful. Well, you are - but you’re also just human. God didn’t design our brains to hold that much information. Your short-term memory can only hold about three or four things at a time.‏

The ‏ ‏size‏ ‏ of the commitment is irrelevant. As the brain science makes clear, if I say I will do something and I fail to write that task down (and of course do it sometime soon) my stress and anxiety will build.

Stress comes from unkept agreements with yourself” and others.‏

There is good news:

You don’t have to close your open loops to let them go

Science shows that we don’t have to actually close our open loops in order for our brains to let them go. We simply have to place our open loops in a trusted system outside our minds.

To reduce the Ziegarnik effect you have to put the open loops in a system outside your mind.

This can be a to-do list, a post it note, an alarm in your phone, or a sophisticated task management software. The method doesn’t matter, it just matters that you have some sort of system to track your open loops.

So now that we are all essentially brain scientists...what does scripture say about commitments? Surely the words “open loop” don’t appear in the Bible‏.‏

No, but Paul did address the connection between un-externalized concerns and anxiety.

Philippians 4:6–7 NLT

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Paul is saying that part of the solution to our anxiety and stress is clearing our minds of concerns and requests, in this case through prayer. Givign God the open loops. ‏

We need to let our “yes” be “yes” or make the best use of every opportunity in order to follow Jesus’s command and example ‏ ‏and‏ ‏ to reduce our anxiety and stress.

Speaking of stress and anxiety, that leads me to the third principle we need to redeem our time in the model of our redeemer: ‏ ‏Silence the Kingdom of Noise: To redeem our time as Jesus did, we must fight to block out noise and create room for silence, stillness, and reflection. ‏ ‏

Principle #3

3. Silence the Kingdom of Noise ‏

If you have read C.S. Lewis’s book ‏ ‏Screwtape Letters‏ ‏, then you have heard this phrase, the “Kingdom of Noise” before. We live in a time of unprecedented noise. And I’m not just referring to the obvious increase in external noise created by nonstop news, entertainment, and the buzzing of the devices in our pockets, purses, and wrists. I’m primarily referring to what all that external noise creates, namely internal noise.

If you have ever tried to sit down and pray or even just sit still for a minute and your mind was constantly wandering, you know what I’m talking about. How does all of this noise relate to our issues with time management? ‏

All of the noise in our lives limits our ability to “make the best use of our time” in 5 ways:‏

Ways Noise Keeps us from Using Our Time Wisely

#1: Noise limits our ability to think‏

When our minds are filled with noise, there is simply no mental space to think. And if we can’t think clearly, we can’t prioritize our to-do lists and effectively engage with the work God has given us to do. Good work requires good thought, and good thought requires great solitude.‏

#2: Noise limits our ability to be creative ‏

Noise limits our opportunities to be bored and thus creative. And if we don’t have the space to work out our God-given gift of creativity, it will be far more difficult to be productive.‏

#3: Noise limits our ability to cultivate depth

God didn’t design our minds to merely receive information. He created us to think about and make creative connections between various inputs. If we fail to make the time to do this thinking alone, it will show up eventually.

It will show up when we’re with others—our spouse, kids, and friends. How many of you have been ‏ ‏physically‏ ‏ present, but you were ‏ ‏mentally‏ ‏ a million miles away? That’s likely because you didn’t have adequate time to think during your day.

#4: Noise limits our ability to be at peace‏

We can go back to what Paul says in Philippians, adding a verse to it this time: ‏

Philippians 4:6–7 NLT

Did you catch it? Paul is saying we shouldn’t be anxious, and instead present our problems to God in prayer. He says, then we will have peace. Most people stop here. But if we keep reading, we see that he makes a list of things we should think about...what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, etc.

Philippians 4:8 NLT

8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Why does Paul make this list? Could it be because part of the solution to our anxiety is found in what we’re choosing to think about—the noise and information we are inviting into our minds? I think so. Most news is not “true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable.

Look at this next thing noise does because it’s the most important one…

#5: Noise limits our ability to listen to God’s voice ‏

One pastor said this:

“The noise of the modern world makes us deaf to the voice of God, drowning out the one input we most need.” ‏

That one hurts. Make no mistake: Noise is an intentional part of the devil’s plan to keep us from making the best use of our time. ‏

The problem is less about what noise we allow ‏ ‏into‏ ‏ our minds and more about what noise we’re keeping ‏ ‏out‏ ‏—namely our own thoughts and ability to listen to God’s voice.‏

I think it’s important to note here the difference between ‏ ‏hearing‏ ‏ and ‏ ‏listening‏ ‏ to the voice of God. We hear God’s voice when we read his word. But here’s the thing: “Quiet times” aren’t actually that quiet. We read. We study. We are quiet in the sense that we aren’t speaking, but our minds are still noisy because we are still consuming and intaking information.

When we read and study God’s Word, we hear his voice

but…

It takes silence and reflection to ‏listen to his voice and connect his Word to our lives.‏

Silence, stillness, solitude, reflection—that’s the difference between hearing God’s Word and listening to his voice.‏

Okay so we all agree that too much noise is bad for us. So what can we do? We can look again to our perfect example of Jesus.‏

Jesus often withdrew to a solitary place

The number of times the gospels mention Jesus withdrawing to “a solitary place” is staggering. In the third gospel alone, Luke mentions Jesus’s love of lonely places. Look.

Luke 4:42 NLT

42 Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them.

Luke 5:15 NLT

15 But despite Jesus’ instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases.

Luke 6:12 NLT

12 One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.

Look at this one. In the middle of a busy ministry…

Matthew 14:13 NLT

13 As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns.

Silence was important to Jesus. It was more important than doing ministry. He would do whatever it took to get alone with his father. Don’t you think we need to do the same?

As a matter of fact, the busier he got, the more he sought out silence.

Luke 5:15–16 NLT

15 But despite Jesus’ instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.

so what do we need to do? We need to find a solitary place.

Conclusion

Here is what we have learned… to make the best use of our time,

We have to prioritize the WOG

We have to keep our commitments

Silence the Kingdom of Noise

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