Your Time Is Precious

Proverbs 18:9: He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.

Last evening I sinned. I wasted something very precious. I wasted several hours of precious time. I*m not sure I can define what a grievous sin that was. I do know that I was miserable while I was doing it. I am somewhat of a sports fan. I have learned that the outcome of ball games is often determined in the last few minutes. Watching the first two or three hours of a sporting event can be a terrible waste of time. Many times when I tried to give my time to the Lord He has arranged it so that I could watch those last five deciding minutes or learn the outcome of a game in just a few minutes by watching a sports report. I have been equally pleased to know that my favorite team won whether I spent a couple of hours watching or a couple of minutes later learning the outcome. I have also been equally disappointed whether I spent a couple of hours watching or a couple of minutes learning later that they lost.

I probably have the same excuses that you do. I was too tired after a busy day to accomplish anything of value. No one else will be harmed by my wasting this time. Etc. etc. All of our excuses for sin are invalid. When we are tired rest is not a waste of time. When we are tired is not a time when we can do much physically. But it is a time when we can still look to the Lord. Looking to the Lord requires no energy and doesn*t burn any calories. And yet looking to the Him gets wonderful results.

There is something joyful that we can do when we are too tired to do much of anything else. We can enjoy looking at the Lord and watching Him work. We can read a verse from the Bible or just meditate on one. We can pray a short prayer.

The wasted hours seemed more miserable than usual because they were contrasted with about 20 wonderful minutes of my life earlier in the day. I had the joy of sharing the gospel with a gentleman who then received Christ. He was amazingly attentive to the Word of God. Watching him absorb each precious truth from the Bible and be satisfied by it was watching the Lord*s work. It was like watching the petals of a flower open and bloom. We have probably all seen how a flower opens by watching a speeded up movie.

We have what is often referred to as disposable income. That would be income that we have that is not committed to some obligation or need. We also have disposable time. We must spend time each day sleeping, eating, cleaning etc. Those hours are not disposable. We don*t have much choice about how we spend them. Young mothers with several children don*t have much disposable time. When our children are grown we have more disposable time. It seems that the more of it we have, the more selfish we become about it.

I cannot buy back the time I wasted last evening. Not for any price. Not for a million dollars. I believe that proves that our time is more valuable than our money. We have probably all heard the expression: We have more time than money. That is the expression of a *time-waster.*

We also have what could be referred to as disposable energy. I won*t spend a lot of time there but we all have energy that we can decide how to spend.

Time is a gift of God. Energy is a gift of God. Money is a gift of God. Lord thank you that you are so willing to forgive the ways that we have wasted gifts you have given us. Help us to sin less and be wiser about these things.

Ephesians 5:15-16: See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Joel 2:12, 25: Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: . . . 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

It sounds like we can redeem (restore, buy back) the hours we wasted yesterday by looking to the Lord today.

Care to discuss Your Time Is Precious with Ron?

He'd also like to hear your prayer requests