Articles
It's Most Precious
“…Making the most of the opportunity.” (Col. 4:5)
I will get to it later! Has that ever come out of your mouth? More than likely, you have at least heard that from someone else. Putting things off or procrastinating is a common problem among people. We may believe that there will always be time to complete whatever task we choose to put off for the moment. Sometimes we never get to the thing that we meant to do. Why is this the case?
Time is a funny thing. One moment you are a little child, and before you know it, decades have passed. It is one thing that you never will get back once it is gone. Some may reminisce by saying, “I wish I would have done things differently.” How much time is spent regretting missed opportunities? Do we simply fail to act? The problem seems to be that we do not value the time that God has given us.
Scripture stresses the importance of time in order that we may learn to use it more wisely. Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Moses wrote this just after stating that our lives last maybe 80 years. Granted, people may live longer or shorter than this observation. The key takeaway is that we have to focus on doing God’s will, living a life as a holy sacrifice to Him (cf. Rom. 12:1f).
How great would it be if we could focus our hearts and minds on pouring our energy into the present for the will of God! We can get trapped into living in the past or looking forward to the future. When this occurs, our energy for the present is limited. James wrote, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will and also do this or that’” (Jas. 4:13-15). Furthermore, he adds that if we know the right thing to do but do not do it, then we have sinned (v. 17). May we not only focus on living in the present, let us also make sure to do the right thing, according to God’s will.
For our benefit, God’s word provides numerous examples of what to do with our time. David knew that his only hope in desperate situations was to call out to the Lord in prayer (cf. Psa. 31:14f). Mordecai exemplified timely action when he approached Esther to intervene on behalf of the Jewish people (cf. Est. 4:14). Our best lesson in time management comes from Jesus, who instructs us to seek God’s kingdom first in our lives (cf. Matt. 6:33). Our actions or inactions will have lasting positive or negative effects.
Solomon understood that even though this life was fleeting, there was something beyond this short earthly stay (cf. Ecc. 3:11). Regrettably, many callous their hearts to the notion of eternity. People will deny God’s word and think that what happens now is all there is, and nothing comes after death. One day those individuals will find themselves in a place of great sorrow that will never end (cf. 2 Thess. 1:9).
What are we doing with our time? There is a phrase—fail to plan, then you plan to fail. God does not want us to fail, but to succeed! He wants us to use our time wisely (cf. Eph. 5:15ff). We need to keep in mind that our lives are not our own. The life and time that God has blessed us with is a gift.
I so love the thought, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present” (Bill Keane). We must remember that tomorrow does not exist, and all that we have is the here and now! If you have not made the decision yet to follow the Lord, then do it today! Now is the time, because today is the day of salvation (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2).
