Pearls of Wisdom

God’s Word is full of Him, Who is Wisdom. Jesus is spoken of as the Wisdom of God. In the Bible the book of Proverbs is a definite book of wisdom, which is to be studied. This page is dedicated to bringing the wisdom of God’s Word to you so that you may find daily wisdom for your own life.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Where Have You Been?

Have you ever gone out to shop and been gone longer than you thought you would be? When you came home, your spouse said to you: “Where have you been?" They weren’t asking you where you had been shopping. They were asking you why you were gone so long. There are times when God asks us that question. We left our place of prayer and came back weeks later or days later. “Where have you been?” He asks you. We always have a reply, don’t we? "I was tired." "I had too much to do." "I had to work late." "I can’t get up early." "Everyone was taking a slice of my time and I had none left for You." "There is not enough of me to go around." "I want to be with You Lord, but I don’t have time." Every one of these reasons are legitimate, but not profitable.

Let’s take a look at a very familiar scripture passage about time.

Ephesians 5:14-16
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

It appears from these scripture verses that we are as foolish people who sleep or are dead when we don’t redeem our time. When we do arise to the fullness of our place in Christ, taking advantage of every opportunity of using our time wisely, the Light of Christ shines on our day, guiding us away from darkness. When we look at this word “redeem” in the Strong’s Concordance, we see that it means: To buy up. Figuratively, it means: to rescue from loss (improve opportunity). What I am perceiving from this word “redeem” is that we must always be watching to improve our use of time, so that we don’t lose opportunities.

Time is a commodity which God has given us to use while we are here on this earth. We always think of being good stewards of our finances, but what about being good stewards of our time? I know what you are thinking. You are thinking the same thing I am thinking. “I do the best I can do, but there is so much to do.” I truly believe that satan has deceived us into thinking that we will not accomplish what we have on our agenda for the day if we take too much time in prayer and praise and worship.

We all have the same dilemma. We all have the same choices. As I am seeing it now, in the time period that we all are iliving in, without prayer and time spent with God, we are going to fall flat on our faces. We need the wisdom of God to direct everything we do. We even need His wisdom to know what route to take to work in the morning.

We need God’s wisdom to know how to pray, what to pray and when to pray. Prayer is not just a closet mentality. It is to be an all-day-long mentality. Prayer helps us to know what to expend our energies on. There are low priorities and there are high priorities. If we waste all of our time and energy on the low priorities in our lives, there is a power drain, and we never accomplish what God has designed for us to do. Time spent with the Lord is the most valuable use of our energy. He will set the day for us and direct us to those things that are important. Sometimes, what we think is important can wait until another day.

Here is a direction for each one of us. Let’s make a quality decision that we are giving God our time each day, all 24 hours of it. As we shower, as we put on our makeup, as we shave, as we dress, as we eat our meals, as we do our jobs, as we shop, let’s purpose to talk to the Father about everything. What do you want me to do, Lord, about this situation? How should I handle this? Should I talk with that person?

Satan has set up power drains of our energy during the day. God has orchestrated tapping into THE POWER SUPPLY during the day. He is the Director. Let’s stop trying to take His place by our determination to get everything done on OUR AGENDA. He has an AGENDA, and it may not match ours. His agenda will become ours as we start our day with Him, continue our day with Him and end our day with Him.

Just a little side note here. I have been guilty recently of doing things “on my own.” Since I have turned around and given God my time, it is absolutely remarkable how much energy I have and how much time I have left in the day to do what I had planned to do. When we give God our time, He Who is a God of increase, increases our time available because He helps us to do things in a shorter span of time than normally required. He is a God of multiplication and increase. You want increase in the time you have; give it to God. He will multiply it.