Time

“I just don’t have the time!” Does that sound familiar at all? In today’s society, time is the one thing we never have enough of. There are just so many different demands on our time, and of course we each have only 24 hours per day. We envy previous generations for their much less complicated lives, in a time that was much less evil. But lets see what Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 5:15-16 (WEBBE): ¹⁵Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, ¹⁶redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

This was not a message just for the Ephesians either – we see the same thing in Colossians too:

Colossians 4:5 (WEBBE): ⁵Walk in wisdom towards those who are outside, redeeming the time.

The Greek word for redeeming in both these verses is ἐξαγοράζω (exagorazō). According to Thayer’s Greek Definitions it means:

1) to redeem
1a) by payment of a price to recover from the power of another, to ransom, buy off
1b) metaphorically of Christ freeing the elect from the dominion of the Mosaic Law at the price of his vicarious death
2) to buy up, to buy up for one’s self, for one’s use
2a) to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own

So even back in the days of the early church, making wise use of one’s time was important.

I was recently listening to Curry Blake teaching on spiritual warfare. And the thing that really hit home for me was that one of the devil’s tactics is to steal our time. If we spend all of our time on worldly things, then we are not effective ambassadors for Christ on earth. And so our enemy works hard to ensure that there are always worldly things that seem more important or more fun than spending time with God. But we still have the choice – we can decide that God’s Kingdom is more important than anything else. And that we want to spend our most precious resource – time – first on that!

Matthew 5:33 (WEBBE): ³³But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.

Now I am not saying that we should not enjoy the good things of the world. God created things such as good food and friendship for us to enjoy after all. But our priorities must be right – God should ALWAYS come first.

I challenge you this week to MAKE time for God, even if it is only 5 minutes every day. Do you really need to watch three hours of television, or can you actually spare a few minutes of that time to read God’s Word? Do you really have to spend two hours on social media, or can you spare 5 minutes to pray to God? Redeem your time!