Time is Precious—So Make the Best of It

  

    I...don't really know who Harvey Mackay is. I googled him and apparently he's this businessman/columnist/author person, but the thing that stuck out to me about him the most was this quote he said on his Facebook page several years ago. (You can read it above.) 😉The reason why this quote impacted me so much was because it's true. Time really is precious and once it's lost you can't ever get it back again.  

    I feel like in today's culture, many of us (including myself) waste time and don't use it for God. Instead, we often think about what we have to do in this amount of time, by that hour, or before those deadlines. And this isn't completely a bad thing. It's life and God gave us things to do to live out the time we have on this earth. (Or else, the word "boring" would get a whole new definition!) 😉However, it does become a bad thing when we get so caught up in our schedules and push God out of our lives, not finding enough time to spend and grow in our relationship with Him. By doing so, we're losing so much precious time that could've been used to get to know God a whole lot better!

    This is something I really struggle with, because many times if I'm busy or stressed out with school I'll skip my quiet time in the morning and think "Oh, it's just this once. I'll catch up or do it tomorrow." But in reality, one missed morning of time with God turns into two, and then three, and then four, and then and then and then it eventually becomes too hard to get back into a routine and, well, that's not really a good thing. XD 

    So, after thinking about this the other day, I decided to take a look in the Bible to see what it says about time and how we should use it properly. Down below, I'll list the main verses I looked at and share a little bit about what I learned reading them!

    Ecclesiastes 9:12

    For man does not know his time. Like the fish that are taken from an evil net, and the birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

    This basically means we're gonna die and don't know when. 

    I know. Such an epiphany. But seriously, if you think about it...that's kinda powerful. Most of the time I don't even think that a trip to the grocery store could result in a fatal car crash or something. I just tend to take life for granted. And, while we aren't supposed to live in fear all the time and lock ourselves up at home ('cause, I mean, you could die there too *cough*), we should keep in mind how we are living our lives and make sure that what we're doing is for God. Besides, as Christians, that's our purpose on this earth. To build His kingdom and live for Him.

    Hosea 10:12

   Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

    Heheh. This one was slightly confusing, but here's what I got from it (and you may see something totally different, so if you do, don't be shy to share it in the comments!). From what I could gather, I thought it might be saying that we not only need to be righteous and have unwavering love for others, but we also need to "break up our fallow [uncultivated or inactive] ground", as in soften our hearts and turn back to God if we haven't been as close to Him as we want. If we do take the time to seek the Lord then He will bless us! This kinda ties back into what I was saying about having a good habit of quiet time with God and how, if I wanna break up my fallow ground, then I need to make sure to get back into a routine of spending time with Him if I haven't been doing so recently.

    Ephesians 5:15-17

    Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

    This one is pretty easy to grasp. Since the days are evil (i.e. full of sin and death) we shouldn't waste time by acting unwise and foolish, but rather use our time well by being wise and growing in our journey with Christ. We need to spend time and get to know God so we can understand what His will for our lives are, rather than doing our own thing to satisfy our own desires and wants. Because, as Christians, our only desire should be following God. This means doing what He wants us to do instead of trying to take the wheel and run our lives the way we want it to be. 

    Colossians 4:5-6

    Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

    Would you look at that! Again, it talks about using our time wisely, but in this instance it's specifically saying we should do so with outsiders. Now you may be thinking, Erm, outsiders? Does that mean like people from foreign countries or something? Well, yes. It most definitely can mean that! But here, I think the term "outsiders" is referring to unbelievers (who obviously can be from other countries). As a way of building His kingdom, God wants Christians to minister to unbelievers, but, seeing how that can sometimes be difficult, Paul, the writer of Colossians, gives us a little advise to help with that! He says to "Let your speech always be gracious" (that's easy enough to understand) and for your speech to be "seasoned with salt" (Um, say wut?) That...totally lost me. BUT, thankfully, there's this little thing called cross-references at the bottom of my Bible and LO AND BEHOLD in Mark 9:50 it give us a quick peek at what this whole salt business is about!

    Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. (Mark 9:50) 

    Aaaand, violà! If our speech needs to be seasoned with salt, then, from what I could discern, our speech needs to be good, genuine, and wise so that we can learn how to talk to unbelievers and hopefully draw them to God. By doing this, we're using our time wisely when ministering to unbelievers, rather than talking to them in a frilly, showy way about God.

    I'm not sure if any of that makes sense or not. And I'm certainly not judging anyone and saying we all waste time and don't use it for God. I'm just saying that if it has been hard getting in the Word and finding time to grow in your relationship with the Lord, then hopefully these Bible verses will be a little reminder and show how precious it is to make that a priority in our lives! (And hopefully this will help me too!) 😉

Tally-ho!

    Let's talk! Did any of these verses inspire you to rethink how you spend your time? Who else finds cross-references in the Bible cool? Does anyone have anything to add about what I mentioned? Tell me all about it in the comments below!