Time
TIME: when I say that word, what do you think? The Lord posed that question to me today. And I realized that I think the wrong thing when He says, TIME. Time to me is something I don’t seem to have enough of. So, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As long as that is my thinking regarding time, that is exactly what I will get—not enough. It is like poverty of finances. When people don’t have enough, they are reminded continually that there is not enough to go around. I found that that is the same rut I have been stuck in for quite a while in my life. That is not living by faith. Living by faith is knowing that God has given each one of us 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, equally, and we are to spend it as He directs, not as earthly need directs. This has been an eye-opener for me. Let me give you some scriptures that I was directed to this morning.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 in the Amplified Bible tells us that God has made everything beautiful in its time and that He has planted His eternity (not time) in our hearts and minds. That means that He has planted in each of us our purpose here on this earth as He has designed and as He has determined. As we spend TIME in His presence and His Word, we will know what He has designed for the day for us to carry out that part of His plan for our lives. Each day counts, as well as each year. The deeds and thoughts and words we do or speak that day are to be determined by Him for His purpose, not by our much fretting about what is not getting done. Did you know that there are things we are doing right now that He did not plan for us to do? And those deeds, though they may be for a good cause and help someone, will not be placed to our account because He never intended for us to do them. He intended for someone else to do them. I know that those of you who are like me and see someone in need or see something needing to be done and do it, are asking this question: What if the person who is assigned to that job doesn’t do it? Who will do it? Guess what? That is God’s responsibility and not ours.
Oh, I am learning. What about you? And then in verse 14 of that chapter we read that whatever God does endures forever and cannot be added to or taken away from. It stands forever. Even so, selah, pause and meditate. Whatever we do that God directs and plans stands forever, because the Eternal God, Who is in charge of eternity has orchestrated it for us to carry out His purpose.
Two other scriptures which caught my eye are Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5, both which state basically the same thing. We are to make the most of the time, buying up each opportunity God presents to us. We are to live wisely in our relations to those in the world as we make the most of our time and buy up each opportunity. That tells me that I must access the Wisdom of God which is in me, whose name is Jesus, and find out what He has to say about my opportunities and use them wisely, like I buy material goods wisely in this world. There are God’s opportunities and there are man’s opportunities. We will make the most of our time by using God’s opportunities that He gives us in our time account and from which we buy God’s best.
Another passage that I read is in Romans 13:11-14. In verse 11 we are told that it is a critical hour (That is certainly the case right now in this world.) and that we need to wake up from slumber because the hour of final salvation, deliverance is closer than when we first believed. The night is gone and the day is almost here, so we are to cast off the works of darkness. Anything that is not of God is darkness instead of light—fear, doubt, unbelief, sickness, disease, poverty, lack, defeat, depression, failure. Even thoughts of these things brings darkness to our minds. Then we are given our instruction: PUT ON THE ARMOR OF LIGHT. Who is the Light? Jesus! And what does He do? He protects us and covers us with His Presence like armor protects a warrior.
Our next instruction is to live and conduct ourselves as children of light, honoring and reverencing our God in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, being people of integrity, instead of people of the works of the world, the works of darkness. We can get a good list of the works of darkness in Galatians 5:19-21 and Colossians 3:8,9. We finish Romans 13 with the exhortation to put on the Lord Jesus Christ; make no provision to indulge our flesh. That is using time wisely.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 in the Amplified Bible tells us that God has made everything beautiful in its time and that He has planted His eternity (not time) in our hearts and minds. That means that He has planted in each of us our purpose here on this earth as He has designed and as He has determined. As we spend TIME in His presence and His Word, we will know what He has designed for the day for us to carry out that part of His plan for our lives. Each day counts, as well as each year. The deeds and thoughts and words we do or speak that day are to be determined by Him for His purpose, not by our much fretting about what is not getting done. Did you know that there are things we are doing right now that He did not plan for us to do? And those deeds, though they may be for a good cause and help someone, will not be placed to our account because He never intended for us to do them. He intended for someone else to do them. I know that those of you who are like me and see someone in need or see something needing to be done and do it, are asking this question: What if the person who is assigned to that job doesn’t do it? Who will do it? Guess what? That is God’s responsibility and not ours.
Oh, I am learning. What about you? And then in verse 14 of that chapter we read that whatever God does endures forever and cannot be added to or taken away from. It stands forever. Even so, selah, pause and meditate. Whatever we do that God directs and plans stands forever, because the Eternal God, Who is in charge of eternity has orchestrated it for us to carry out His purpose.
Two other scriptures which caught my eye are Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5, both which state basically the same thing. We are to make the most of the time, buying up each opportunity God presents to us. We are to live wisely in our relations to those in the world as we make the most of our time and buy up each opportunity. That tells me that I must access the Wisdom of God which is in me, whose name is Jesus, and find out what He has to say about my opportunities and use them wisely, like I buy material goods wisely in this world. There are God’s opportunities and there are man’s opportunities. We will make the most of our time by using God’s opportunities that He gives us in our time account and from which we buy God’s best.
Another passage that I read is in Romans 13:11-14. In verse 11 we are told that it is a critical hour (That is certainly the case right now in this world.) and that we need to wake up from slumber because the hour of final salvation, deliverance is closer than when we first believed. The night is gone and the day is almost here, so we are to cast off the works of darkness. Anything that is not of God is darkness instead of light—fear, doubt, unbelief, sickness, disease, poverty, lack, defeat, depression, failure. Even thoughts of these things brings darkness to our minds. Then we are given our instruction: PUT ON THE ARMOR OF LIGHT. Who is the Light? Jesus! And what does He do? He protects us and covers us with His Presence like armor protects a warrior.
Our next instruction is to live and conduct ourselves as children of light, honoring and reverencing our God in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, being people of integrity, instead of people of the works of the world, the works of darkness. We can get a good list of the works of darkness in Galatians 5:19-21 and Colossians 3:8,9. We finish Romans 13 with the exhortation to put on the Lord Jesus Christ; make no provision to indulge our flesh. That is using time wisely.
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 10:20 AM
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