By Chris WittsSunday 5 Jun 2022Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
How often do you find yourself wasting time? It was William Shakespeare who once said, “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” I guess we can relate to those days when we didn’t feel like doing anything, even if there was much to do. Perhaps at the beginning of the New Year, you made a resolution to be wiser in the use of your time.
Time is an elusive thing. It slips away from us so easily, leaving us wondering if we have indeed used our time the way we should have. There’s no doubt that we are greatly influenced by the clock. I’d be lost without my watch. We are governed by time. We set the alarm clock to get up, and constantly ask ourselves, What is the time?
We also realise that time is short—and it’s a diminishing commodity. Unlike money, which can be placed in a bank account for safekeeping and later used, time disappears completely the minute you get it. A minute is gone in 60 seconds, and all you’ve got left is the memory of how it was spent. So if you want to make an investment of the time you have, spend it wisely.
Spend Your Time Wisely
The Bible says quite a deal about time:
- “Remember…that my life is but a breath.” (Job 7:7)
- “How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog. Now you see it, soon it is gone.” (James 4:14)
Time is definitely passing by at 60 seconds-a-minute, 60 minutes-an-hour, 24 hours-a-day. Someone once wrote, “The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at a late or early hour.” So time is so uncertain. In fact, the only thing we can be certain of today is the uncertainty of time.
It was Charles Spurgeon who said:
When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept. When as a youth I dreamed and talked, time walked. When I became a full-grown man, time ran. And later as I older grew, time flew. Soon I shall find while travelling on, time gone.”
The Apostle Paul had a definite view about time when he wrote to the Christians at Ephesus. He says in Ephesians 5:15-16, “Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, because the days are evil.” Paul encourages us to embrace every moment, and make the most of every opportunity to live for God.
The tremendous thing about time is that for the present moment you have exactly what you have always had 24 hours in each day. It has been correctly said that time is a great equaliser. C.S. Lewis used to say that the future is something which everybody reaches at the rate of 60 minutes-an-hour, whatever he does, wherever he is. That’s quite profound as you think over it for a moment.
Invest Your Time in Everlasting Things
So it’s never too late to take charge of those many minutes that fall by the wayside every day, and invest them in ways that will last forever. Perhaps the problem is we complain about not having enough time, when really what we mean is that we have a time-management problem. Why not use those idle moments to speak to God in prayer, or read the Bible? As you drive to work, memorise a verse of Scripture or listen to Christian music.
The amazing thing is that when we spend our time on God’s time clock, there seem to be more hours in the day. Have you found that to be the case? Here’s another amazing verse from the Bible. It’s Matthew 6:33: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
Many people are still uncertain about life. The old cliché still rings true: The best use of life is to invest it in something that will outlast life. The Psalmist in Psalm 103 understood the limitations of time when he wrote: “He knows…our days are few and brief, like grass, like flowers, blown by the wind and gone forever. But the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, to those who reverence him” (Psalm 103:14-17 TLB).
David, the Psalmist, understood the brevity of time when he said in Psalm 39:4-7: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You. Each man’s life is but a breath. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in You.”