Time

No one possesses a commodity more precious than time. Time is you, poured out, stored up, given to someone or something, or reserved selfishly for yourself. Time is valuable, limited, wonderful, and must be prized if we are to succeed in life. Time is so beautiful that the Son of God stepped out of eternity into time for the single purpose of redeeming the human family for eternity. The world has invented every conceivable time-consuming device because it takes time to be holy, and the world is the enemy of holiness. It takes time to establish the Kingdom of God, and the world hates His Kingdom. If we are going to redeem the souls of the lost, time must become our sanctified possession, dedicated to the eternal, instead of the temporal.

ItÂ’s time to redeem our time. ItÂ’s time to defeat the time stealers. ItÂ’s time to regain the discipline of our own destiny. Time is the creator of any meaningful future. The great musicians learned somewhere, at some time, to dedicate their time to music. The great preachers that can unfurl the words of Holy Scripture, at some past time decided to dedicate much time to the Word of God. One cannot spend time in the Bible in meaningful love of truth without discovering that truth, in the soul of a saint, will soon become a fire of witness flowing freely out to the lost world. A godly mother knows that the raising of children is best described as time. It takes time to instill the values that turn children into mature young adults. It takes mothers and fathers time to mellow the heart of a mischievous lad. ItÂ’s amazing what the time of parents means to boys and girls.

The ultimate expression of selfishness is the flocking of adults to some time-stealing event, while the weighty matters of the family, the church, and the world are forsaken or ignored. We all need time to come apart, but to come apart with the wicked is more dangerous than to come apart at the seams. The very reason men come apart at the seams is because they spend their time frustrated, unbridled or unplanned and have loaded their lives with stress. Undisciplined time is destruction working overtime in the body. The best medicine for stress is time organized, well structured, and filled with enjoying what one does with his or her time.

The Bible has much to say about time. There is a time for every important thing that relates to the Biblical life. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) Measuring your time and spending it meaningfully is a Biblical responsibility. We will answer for wasting our time.

Even God plans a time for every human being when He seeks to refresh their soul and teach them of His mercies. The Bible says, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)

We must discern the times as God plans them and fulfills His purpose. “He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:2-3) The world and time is not an unplanned scheme of fate. Every aspect of life and every event in our world are either part of His plan or the plans of His enemies. In all of it, God maintains control, and the joy of living is to see and know His plan and to yield oneself to Him.

The Bible commands us: “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:16-17) The whole world revolving around us is full of evil and schemes of our enemies, but our Father has a plan for our time. We will be frustrated to death unless we surrender to that plan and His time schedule and learn to discern the signs of His direction for our lives. Our Father has declared that our time is valuable, limited, and must not be wasted. Wasted time is emptiness and tends toward a slothful spirit. A well-planned life leads to sweet satisfaction and the enjoyable sense of peace and fullness. The balance of one’s time is a pleasurable sense of an organized life and promotes peace and a relaxed disposition. When you take charge of your time, you take charge of your life.