Time

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time. (Ephesians 5:15-16) 

God has given us many precious gifts from the storehouse of His grace for which we can be immensely grateful.

He showers down forgiveness. He has saved us from the power of sin in our life.  He gives us the right to call Him ‘Father’. He has promised to be with us always. He supplies our needs. He gives us friends and family, those who will help us in times of need.

So many gifts so constantly given that we can forget to rightly appreciate all these things and take them for granted.

​This is especially true for His gift of ‘time’. Every day, God gifts us 86,400 seconds. He entrusts with this precious gift. He encourages us to make ‘the best use of time’ (Ephesians 5:16) because we will never get a second chance to live these seconds over again. What we do with each second can never be changed, never be undone, never be obliterated. It is woven into the fabric of time. 

The Psalmist cries to God,

 “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

To ‘number our days’ means recognising the truth of our limited timespan and living in such a way that these days are not wasted. 

That may mean planning to spend only a small amount of time each day on social media; it may mean regularly building in a visit with someone who lives alone and needs support; it can mean spending more time in prayer than on an iPad. 

​The Apostle Paul urged the early Christians to,

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. (Colossians 4:5) 

Are you making the most of your 86,400 seconds each day, or do you need to do some planning? ​

“If you knew the sterling worth of time, you would shrink from the smallest waste of so precious a thing.” C.H. Spurgeon 

Pauline Anderson