Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future.
Well, I guess you would have to be old like me to recognize the lyrics from a 1976 song by Steve Miller Band, but those lyrics keep playing in my head.
We like to think we are in control of so many things in this world today, including what we do with our time. And, of course, we are. To an extent. I have the same twenty-four hours in a day that you have. How I choose to spend them is mostly up to me, until something happens that is completely out of my control.
Then the best laid plans are out the window.
Three years ago, I had a little accident that laid me up for a few days. Everything on my calendar got put on the back burner. Before I was completely recovered, my mother-in-law went in for a routine surgery on Monday. She took her last breath that Friday.
She had plans that she never got to, probably things left unsaid. She had prepared for her recovery time by buying the Boost and Ensure that she would have to drink following the surgery. She had packed the clothes that she would wear home from the hospital. She had enlisted our help in the days following the surgery when she would be unable to drive.
Do you get what I’m saying?
She never got to do any of those things.
God is opening my eyes to how fragile time is. Every second that goes by is another moment that has passed. What am I doing with those moments?
These things have caused me to truly think about what is important. If we thought this were our last time to see someone we loved on this earth, what would we say to them? If we knew how urgent the time is, how would we spend our moments?
Would we waste time on things that have no eternal impact, or would we be more intentional about loving others, sharing the Gospel, and making disciples?
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12, NIV
This Scripture was pointing to a future time when Jesus would come as the Messiah and go to the cross and obtain righteousness for all through His blood. However, the principle for us is the same: It is time to seek the Lord.
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,
‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
I don’t know how much time you have left on this earth, and neither do you. But I do know what is important about those moments: only those things that touch eternity.
“As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”
Psalm 103:15-16
This life is so short compared to eternity. What are we doing with our time? How are we spending those moments in a way that will impact eternity?
If you only had today, how would you spend it? Would you waste hours on social media or television? Would you spend your moments on shopping for more stuff? Would you be too nervous to share the gospel with a friend or family member who is lost?
Or would you be more intentional about loving people and telling them what Jesus has done in your life?
The Lord has convicted me over the last few weeks of how much time I waste, how much time I spend on fear and worry, how much time I spend building my kingdom, instead of His.
We don’t know what tomorrow holds. Time is, indeed, slipping, slipping, slipping into the future. Who needs your forgiveness? Who needs your testimony? Who needs your time, your presence, your words of encouragement?
My mother-in-law was not only prepared for her surgery, but she was prepared for her eternity. She gave her life in service to the Lord. In her last days, our cousin–wanting to be sure–asked her if she was sure that she would go to heaven. She never even hesitated in her reply: Yes!
If you don’t know the Lord in a real and personal way, please know that the time is short and the days are evil. Don’t put off the greatest decision that you will ever make. Jesus Christ will change your life and make it all that it was intended to be.
My life was only a shadow of real love, real joy, and real peace before I came to Jesus. He has completely changed my life and made me whole and complete. Do bad things still happen? Sure. I have accidents and get hurt. I lose loved ones. I make mistakes. But I have the love, joy, and peace of God to help me through those things.
We still live in a fallen world where evil prevails. A perfect world where bad things never happen is called heaven. And there’s only one way to get there.
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'”
John 14:5
You want to know how to make the most of your time? Give it all to Jesus. Surrender your life completely to Him and let Him have His way. Seek the Lord every day of your life and follow hard after Him. Wake up each day and ask Him what He wants you to do with your moments.
“But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands.”
Psalm 31:14-15b
What you do with your time matters. Place your times–your every moment–in God’s hands. Don’t wait. Do it now. Put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.