A. How do we manage a life that is becoming progressively more complicated? Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding unto the simple.” The word “simple” here means uncomplicated. In other words, the Word of God brings light and comprehension to a life that has been simplified.
B. The Bible is God’s revelation to you and me about how to bring meaning out of chaos or complex life events that bring confusion and make it hard to understand what to do. When you simplify your life, it gets progressively more worth living and more enjoyable; your quality of life and level of success will go up.
C. In order to simplify your life, you first have to know the answer to this question: Does God have a purpose for you? The answer is summarized in Mark 16:15–16: “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” This is the command that Jesus left with His disciples and still is true for us today. Your life can be simplified when you know that your life’s resource should ultimately go toward bringing more people the Word of God: supporting the preaching of the Gospel, bringing people to sit under the Word at church, sending missionaries to the foreign field, building new churches, or buying airtime for ministries. Generally speaking, your life’s purpose is to get the Word into other people, and your priorities in life need to reflect that.
D. Now that we’ve identified our main purpose, God tells us in His Word how we can properly use and simplify the different resources He has given us in our lives: relationships, money, our bodies, and time.
E. Mismanaged relationships will produce as many complications as anything I know. When a relationship is mismanaged, schism and division will result as well as resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, animosity, wrath, anger, and much more. A mismanaged relationship complicates our lives to the point where we just want to go up into the mountains and be a hermit and never see another person again.
F. The Bible tells us how we can simplify our relationships: love. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). This doesn’t refer only to a feeling of affection. The Greek word used for love, agape, is an action. It means to give. The rest of 1 Corinthians 13 provides an expanded definition to what loving others should look like. Love gives somebody else the benefit of the doubt. Love gives friendship, gentleness, and kindness. Love isn’t rude and unmannerly. Love believes the best. Love is not rude or unmannerly. Love forgives. Love doesn’t hold resentment and bitterness, and it reaches out to meet somebody else’s need. Love listens instead of talks. If you want to simplify your relationships, love is the answer.
G. Another area God shows us how to simplify is our finances. Financial complexity robs you of any real quality of life. Mismanaged finances put us in these kinds of situations where chaos seems to reign: too much debt, cash flow problems, creditors calling, people hounding you for money. The list goes on. Life becomes so complicated that people just want to throw in the towel.
H. If you want to simplify your financial management, the first thing you do is recognize that you don’t own anything, including your money. The Bible says you’re God’s steward. A steward is one who manages or administrates the household or estate of his lord. God entrusts you with a certain amount of material resource to pursue His purpose. When you realize that you’ve been worrying about something that doesn’t even belong to you, you realize you no longer need to worry. You know the Lord will take care of you when you’re working for Him, and it begins setting you free of one of the major constraints people have to deal with.
I. The second thing you need to do with your finances is labor at that which is good to earn an income. Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” This isn’t talking about a guy who’s a thief. It’s talking about someone who is not functioning as God’s steward. The word “labor” means your best and most consistent effort. That means you don’t punch in and punch out every day and do as little as you can in between. It is making your best and most consistent effort. If you want to generate an income that God’s going to bless, this is the way it begins.
J. “What do I do, Pastor, if there’s not a job readily available?” You turn what used to be an eight-hour a day, 40-hours a week job into the “job” of looking for a job. Many people don’t have a job because they’re not investing their hearts in looking for one. They’re waiting for a windfall job to show up instead of taking a job flipping hamburgers. Put your hand to the plow, because God promotes faithfulness.
K. Now why are you laboring? You labor at that which is good that you may have to give to him who needs. This is another way of saying, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.” Human need, whether it’s salvation, healing, provision, eternal, or temporal, is only met on a sustained basis by the Word of God. If you’re going to meet human need, labor at that which is good, generate an income, and the end result should be you’re enabling the Word to go into somebody’s life.
L. Once you’ve labored and generated an income, the next thing you do is give God the first 10 percent of that income—not because He needs your money, but because it is a sign of your submission to His Lordship. In tithing, you acknowledge that your source isn’t your job or your bank account, but God. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” When you tithe, God will bless you with enough money to meet all your family’s needs.
M. Once you’ve tithed and taken care of your own (your bills are paid), God says there will be something left over. That’s called seed. He doesn’t say whether it will be a dollar or a thousand, just that there will be something left. You have a decision to make with this money: will you consume it on your own desires or give it into the kingdom? I think the Lord will give you direction in each instance as to how to handle this seed. If you do choose to put it back into God’s kingdom, you put it back into God’s system of increase. Managing our lives in this way will make them more simple, rewarding, and successful.
N. Another thing that complicates your life is sickness or disease. If you haven’t been a good steward of your body, you open yourself to a lot of complications either now or when you’re older. You could face physical regimens, therapy, treatments, thousands of supplements and pills and medication, doctor appointments, surgeries, etc. Talk about complicating your life!
O. God tells us right out of the box that it’s His will that we not be sick. Healing is part of the redemptive work of our Lord. It is in the atonement. By the stripes of Jesus, you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). If you’ll get this in your heart, when sickness knocks on your door, your simple solution is to believe and receive your healing because Jesus said it will be unto you according to your faith.
P. One way we can simplify this area of our lives is by following Romans 12:1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Sacrifices to the Lord throughout the Bible needed to be the first and the best. That means the sacrifice of our bodies is not filling them up with chemicals, tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. Don’t pack them full of sugar and fat or fill our veins full of plaque so we’re a candidate for an early heart attack. We exercise our bodies. Do a few sit-ups and push-ups. As you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God in this way, sickness will not be named among you.
Q. Perhaps the most valuable commodity God has entrusted us with that can determine how simple or complicated our lives will be is time. God doesn’t look casually at wasting time. He has given us a sliver of time in which we are living in a physical body on this earth. The question is what are we going to do with it?
R. Ephesians 5:15–17 says, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” The word “redeem” means to recover something that has been lost. If you lose time, God expects you to redeem it.
S. So how do we manage our time? God is very simple in His Word about it. Time management comes from spending time with the One who knows no time. The Bible says God is light. Light moves at 186,000 miles a second, and Einstein said that when you step over the threshold of light, you’re in eternity. Timelessness can be proven mathematically to be true, so if God is light and you’re spending time with Him, you’re in a timeless arena that enables you to accomplish far more with Him than you would ever be able to without Him.
T. In a natural sense, spending time with the Lord in the morning is really a matter of organizing your day. I don’t know how anybody gets through a day without sitting down in the morning and making a plan with the Lord. Talk to Him about the day’s priorities and allow God to show you what you might be forgetting.
U. As you sit there quietly in the morning as part of your time with the Lord, your schedule for that day will become clear. Set a cap on your email time or social media time. Prioritize what’s important for you to deal with that day and stick to it. Start controlling your day instead of it controlling you, and you’ll see yourself ultimately being able to better manage your time.
V. So in order to simplify your life, you first need to know your purpose: getting the Gospel preached into all the world. Next, manage your relationships. Make them simple with the love of God. Manage your finances as God’s steward: labor at that which is good, tithe, take care of your family, sow seed, and increase will come. Take care of your body; make it a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him. Manage your time by spending it, first of all, with the Lord. Then He can order your steps and put together a plan for your day and the management of that time will enable you to effectively address the things that you must address in your life. Simplify your life, and life will be worth living.
