Neville Turley

Mortals, born of woman are of few days and full of trouble.  Job 14:1 (NIV)

Be very careful then how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Ephesians 5:15-16 (NIV)

Can you remember how time dragged when we were schoolchildren?  Weekends took forever to come around, not to speak of school holidays, Christmas, birthdays and parties.  How we wished the time away in our desire to grow up.

Then as we entered early adulthood the pace picked up.  Suddenly we had less time to do the many things that had become important to us. 

The older we got the more time conscious we became.  Suddenly we were very aware that as we frittered away our time, so too we were wasting away our opportunities, our hopes and our dreams.  As Victor Hugo, the famous French author who wrote Les Miserables said, “Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.”

How can we make the best use of our time?  Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that we should focus upon the things that matter.  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:33-34

We need to determine our order of priorities and how much time we should allocate to each of them.  Then we must discipline ourselves to stick to our timetable through careful planning.

God gives us differing talents, but all of us have received one gift in common – the gift of time.

Jesus was very much aware of how we should use our time.  “As long as it is day, you must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.”  John 9: 4

We need to utilise our God-given gift of time to his glory.  God grant us the grace to do that.

Prayer: Almighty God, through the power of your Holy Spirit, grant us wisdom to use our time to your glory.  For Jesus sake. Amen