Into the Word
Spiritual Day-Timers
Do you use a Day-Timer®? A Day-Timer is a calendar arranged by the hours in each day, the days in each week, the weeks in each month and the months in each year. I use it to quickly reference my schedule so that I don’t forget something I’m supposed to be doing or a place I’m supposed to be.
by Anne Graham Lotz
I used to have my schedule in a little black notebook. Then I upgraded to a PDA, an electronic organizer. Now my schedule can be accessed on a cell phone. Jesus said that you and I are to be spiritual “day-timers.” We are to be consciously aware of the day—the opportunities God gives us each hour, day, week, month and year to do His work—and then take them!
Read John 9:1-7:
“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing” (NIV).
Day-Timers See The Opportunity ...John 9:1-5... In Everyday Life/John 9:1
What was Jesus doing when He saw the blind man?
What was Jesus doing when He called His first disciples in Mark 1:16-18?
When He taught eternal truths in Mark 10:17-31?
When He healed Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52?
What were Peter and John doing when they healed the crippled beggar in Acts 3:1-8?
What was Paul doing when he witnessed to the Athenian intellectuals in Acts 17:15-17?
What do each of these examples teach you?... To Exalt God/John 9:3
What reason did Jesus give for the man’s blindness?
How was this reason fulfilled by what Jesus did? See John 9:6-7, 13-33.
How does Peter expand this answer in 1 Peter 1:6-7?
How was this reason experienced by Jesus Himself?
See Hebrews 5:8-9 and John 17:1-5.
What physical, social, emotional, intellectual or mental limitations do you have?
How could they be opportunities for God to display Himself to others through your life?
What other opportunities do you see in your life to exalt God?
How will you act on them today?... To Embrace Daylight/John 9:4-5
Write out John 9:4 in your own words.
What similar thought do you find in John 4:27-35,2 Timothy 4:1-6 and Romans 13:11-14?
What is the “daylight” in your life?
What is God asking you to do now that you may not be able to do in five years? In 10 years? In 20 years?
How can you take advantage of the “daylight” in the way you spend your time?
Your money? Your energy?
Day-Timers Seize The Opportunity ...John 9:6-7... To Do Something/John 9:6
What did Jesus do about what He saw?
How are we to respond to the needs of others? See James 2:14-18; Luke 10:30-37; Mark 9:36-37, 41; Proverbs 3:27-28.
List the things you are doing to help those in need.
What is God calling you to do today for someone in need?... To Change Someone/John 9:7
What difference did Jesus make in the blind man’s life? See John 9:8-38.
What difference should our actions make, according to Matthew 5:14-16? Compare John 13:35 to 1 John 3:16-18.
Name at least one person who trusts or loves Jesus more because of something you have done or said.
What opportunity do you need to seize “while it is day” (John 9:4, KJV) in order to make an eternal difference in someone’s life?
Don’t miss something very important God wants to do in your life, or through you in someone else’s life, because you aren’t on His schedule.
Would you recommit yourself to working “while it is day”?
Anne Graham Lotz
Anne Graham Lotz is the daughter of Billy and Ruth Bell Graham. She is the founder and president of AnGeL Ministries and the author of several books. She and her husband, Daniel, are parents of three grown children and live in Raleigh, N.C., where they attend Christ Baptist Church (Southern Baptist Convention).
Bible verse marked NIV is taken by permission from The Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society, Colorado Springs, Colo. ©2006 Anne Graham Lotzfrom the June 2006 issue of "Decision" magazine
Bible verse marked NIV is taken by permission from The Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society, Colorado Springs, Colo. ©2006 Anne Graham Lotzfrom the June 2006 issue of "Decision" magazine
