Do you know who your family is?  I am not speaking of your biological family, we all know who they are.  Jesus had a biological family too, but they did not make up His real family.  Jesus tells us who His family is, and His family is our family as well.

Matthew 12:46-50 (NKJV)
⁴⁶  While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. ⁴⁷  Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.” ⁴⁸  But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” ⁴⁹  And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! ⁵⁰  For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

If you are a Christian, your real family is made up of those who do the will of God, that is, those who are a part of the family of God.  How much time do you spend with them?  Redeem the time, and spend as much of it as you can with the people of God.

The first-century church knew the importance of spending time with each other.

Acts 2:44, 46 (NKJV)
⁴⁴  Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common…⁴⁶  So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

We see two ways that the people of God spent time together in these verses.  First, they spent time in fellowship, worshipping God with one another in some portion of the temple, probably in Solomon’s Porch (Acts 3:11; 5:12).  There is no better time spent with the people of God than when we are worshipping God together.  This continued to be a regular practice of the first-century church (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16).  The words “one another” found in these two passages are reflexive pronouns that are reciprocal in nature.  Dana and Mantey, a Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, says that such usage represents “an interchange of action.”  This is what we do when we come together to worship God—we interchange with each other.  We are acting together in such a way that should bring us to the height of our spirituality.   Is that not time well spent?

The second way Acts 2 pictures the saints together is by breaking bread (ver. 46).  The reference here is not to the Lord’s Supper (ver. 42), but a common association with each other, developing the bond of brotherly love.  This, too, is time well spent.  The more time we spend around those that love the Lord, and are committed to His ways, the stronger we will be spiritually.  Paul once said, “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33).  If this is true, and we know it is since Paul wrote it by inspiration, then the opposite must be true as well—good company improves good habits.

Yes, we are all very busy.  Our time is taken with work, school, family (biological), house chores, and even time spent engaging in our favorite form of recreation.  The question is, will we make time for God’s people?  To do that, we must make the best use of our time.  We must redeem the time, but the reward for doing so will make it well worth it.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.