Happy 2024
Don’t Waste Your Time
Life at its longest is short. In the eyes of God a thousand years are but a day.
Dr. Seuss put it: “How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness, how the time has flown. How did it get so late so soon?” We can’t slow life down any more than we can slow the tides of time, but we can slow ourselves down so that we live life to its fullest.
Much of what will happen in the new year will be beyond your control. Presently the Middle East is on fire, our borders are broken and our president is asleep at the wheel. But there are many things we can control in our own lives such as resting in the Goodness of God and trust in his providence, his Word that he can work all things together for our good and his glory (Romans 8:28).
Many people do not make new year’s resolutions because like pie crusts they are too soon and too easily broken. This is true for most of us. But nevertheless, it is good to be a person of resolve and say to yourself as did Joshua, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). No one automatically coasts into heaven; it is a matter of resolve.
The Apostle Paul was such a man. Hear him in Ephesians 5: 15-17, “ See then that you walk circumspectly, (carefully) not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Because our time on planet earth is so short let us spend it wisely and not wastefully. This is what the word circumspectly means: carefully, cautiously, with eyes wide open spiritually so as not to stumble and fall. The author of the Book of Hebrews sounds the same alarm, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). When your lost on the highway and you know it, the smartest thing to do is to take the next exit ramp and get back on track. But too often we wait too long and the hurrier we go the be-hinder we get. Time is not a commodity; it is life and breath and energy once it is spent it is as irrevocable as one minute ago.
Though spoken two thousand years ago by the apostle Paul nothing has changed, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Use your God given time for good while you have the chance because when it slips through your fingers there is no re-claiming it. Sometimes you only get one chance to do a good thing. If you wait for a more convenient season, it never returns. This week I came across that I had completely forgotten about, phrase “carpe diem” that means “seize the day.” Because we can only live life one day at a time, let us seize it and milk it for all its worth.
King Hezekiah treasured his earthy life so much that when God told him was a was soon to die. He cried out to God who gave him 15 more years to live. God Gave him his request. The sad part is that the godly King Hezekiah did not use his time so wisely (II kings 20:5-7; 20:12-19).
Obviously, only God knows the number of days we have left but we are called to live with a sense of countdown according to Psalm 90:12: “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” So many just want to kill time, just get through another day; but as believers let us weigh it, measure everyday as a priceless opportunity to do good for others and thus for the glory of God.
Psalm 39:4-5 is a great reminder for us all: “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, you have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before you; certainly, every man at his best state is but vapor.” We cannot redeem time that is past, but we can redeem time that is future, so let us realize its brevity and buy up every opportunity this new year to do good for the glory of God.
Ephesians 5:17 goes on to say, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
The unwise, the fool does not understand what the will of the Lord is for himself or for the world. The fool is like a man with an elevator in a two-story house, but the elevator does not go to the top floor. His complacency will become his utter destruction.
A farmer’s grandfather’s clock ran amuck early one morning when it struck seventeen times. He jumped up and ran all over the house, saying: “Get up! Get up! It’s later than it’s ever been before!”
Friend, if you don’t know Jesus Christ it’s later than it’s ever been before! If you do know Him but have been wasting your time, it’s later than it’s ever been before! Time is short. Eternity is forever. Repent of you sins and invite him into your heart as your savior NOW!
He is only a prayer away.
Respectfully,
Dr. Robert Bryant