Time: A Precious Commodity

One of the most precious commodities known to man is time. We only have so much of it and none of really knows how much we will actually have. It is scarce. A wasted opportunity is gone forever, as time will not bring it back. The opportunity presented to us to teach a friend, relieve a burden, lend a helping hand comes along and then marches along. We must take advantage of that time while we have that time. We must be aware of our time and make the most of it as God has allotted it for us. Time is an important commodity that we must plan to use, just as we plan to budget our money. If we do not schedule our time wisely, it will fade away and we will soon find ourselves at the end of our lives realizing that we may not have used our precious time wisely. Like talents, how we use time spells the difference in success and failure. Time is wealth – how are we really using it?

Procrastination

Most of our weaknesses is procrastination. We don’t get as much done today because we may say “I can do it tomorrow.” We are all too inclined to use the old philosophy of “never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.” This of course, is a take-off on the much wiser one of “never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” We may find ourselves saying “Oh how I wish I had talked to that person about his sins, and how to obtain salvation – but he is gone now.” The Lord is forgiving, and we do have today, so we should be determined to use it to His glory and the advancement of the kingdom of heaven. We have all lost yesterday, but let’s use today so that tomorrow we won’t have to say, “I wish I had used yesterday better.” If we will not procrastinate and strive to use today to its fullest potential, then we will be able to sleep well knowing that “I have done what I could.”

Wasting Time

Wasted time is wasted money, souls, opportunities and accomplishments. Someone said, “time is money.” Therefore, we should not waste it. A wasted today is a lost yesterday, and then we may worry about what should have been done. It is always refreshing to know that we have used each day to its fullest! There are so many ways that we may find that we have wasted time. Perhaps one way is that we realize that we sleep too much, or much more than we really need to. God’s word says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Instead of reading the Bible, people will read a lot of useless literature. The Bible will build us up and give us all we need to know in order to have an eternal home with God. A lot of time is wasted today on entertainment such as television and various electronic devices. We must strive to make the best use of our time that we have been granted by investing in that which will develop our mind in a good and positive way.

I encourage all of us to think seriously about how we are using our time. Souls are dying, unprepared for heaven. Men are suffering without our help. People are in distress, and we may be wasting our time – when we could be making ourselves very useful in our service to God and our fellow man. The apostle Paul wrote, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17).