At the Village Church, we’ve had the opportunity to hear from other Act29 pastors around the country. J.R. Vassar, the pastor of Apostles Church NYC, has been one of these to bless us by preaching Gospel-Centered messages on several occasions. He recently tweeted: What if you tithed each day to God giving him 10% of your time exclusively in prayer and the Word? 2hrs and 24 min.

This concept really struck me, but the engineer in me had to do some calculations. 2hrs and 24 min is 10% of a full 24 hour day. I immediately rationalized that since most people sleep 7-8 hours a night, It would make more sense to tithe your time based on the 16 hours of possible productive time. This would equate to 1 hr and 36 min. Still agressive, but more managable and reasonable in my opinion.

Then it hit me. I am talking net time vs. gross time. While sleep is certainly a necessity, so is working, eating, commuting. Although you could argue for multitasking during some of these necessary chores, the problem remains that it becomes too easy to calculate our net time down to a point of insignificance.

In matters of finance, we choose to tithe on our gross income even though we never even see about 25% of it, and another 10% is immediately spent paying rent. I’ve heard it asked, “Would you rather God bless you on your gross or on your net?” This may be overly simplistic, but I think it is a valid question to evaluate where our heart is.

The question I have to ask myself is, “Do I value my time more than my money?” or perhaps stated another way, “Do I worship my time more than my money?” It is scary where we find idols lurking in our lives. Even in the questions I ask, it is obvious that I view them as my time & money rather than God’s.

The path of sanctification for a Christian is a painful one at times, not because we don’t know the truth, but because we do not live the truth. The fundamental progression toward Christ is a posture of the heart and mind that acknowledges God’s sovereignty in all things and our humility. Holy Spirity help us.

Follow @jrvassar for more engaging and Christ centered thoughts.