Tuesday March 20
“For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow” (Job 8:9, NKJV).
You can stop a clock, but not the movement of time. Time does not wait; it keeps moving forward even if we stand still and do nothing.
What do the following texts teach us about our time here on earth in this life? James 4:14; Ps. 90:10, 12; Ps. 39:4, 5; Eccles. 3:6-8. What is the basic message that we should take from these texts about just how precious our time is here?
With something so limited and nonrenewable as time, it is important that Christians be good stewards of it. Thus we should develop the habit of using time wisely by focusing on what is important in this life and the next. We must manage time based on what the Word of God reveals to us as important, because once time is up, it can’t be renewed. If we lose money we may eventually get it back, maybe even more than what we first lost. Not so with time. A moment lost is a moment lost forever. We can more easily put a broken egg back in its shell than we recapture even a moment of the past. Thus, time is one of the most precious commodities given to us by God. How important, then, that we develop the habit of making the most of every moment we have been given.
“Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.
The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity. We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin.” - Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 342.
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15, 16, NKJV). What is Paul saying here to us, and how can we apply these words to our present situation?
