Neville Turley

Seventy years is all we have –

eighty years if we are strong

yet all they bring us is trouble and sorrow;

life is soon over, and we are gone              Psalm 90:10 (GNB)

This psalm is a prayer ascribed to Moses.  He knew how little time we have on earth and how swiftly it passes us by.  Moses prayed this prayer in the latter years of the Jews wandering in the wilderness, as the older generation who had left Egypt with him were dying out.  Numbers 14:21-23

We can all agree with Moses.  Life on earth is short and compared to eternity – minimal.  Moses ended his prayer on a positive note:  “Lord our God may your blessings be with us, give us success in all we do.”

None of us know how long we are destined to live.  That is in the hands of God who is eternal.  What we must do is ensure that the time God has given us is used to his glory. 

If we delay doing what we ought to be doing for him, we could well run out of time to be faithful stewards. It is so easy for our life to become so full that we simply do not have time for anything else. 

Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975), the billionaire shipping magnate, had a formula for gaining more time.  "Don’t sleep too much or you will wake up a failure.  If you sleep three hours less a night for a year, you will have an extra month and a half to succeed in."

Following Onassis formula would of course give us more waking hours but the onus would still be on us to use that time productively in God’s service. 

Time wasted is time lost forever.  It can never be regained.

"Life is soon over and we are gone", prayed Moses.  What we must never lose sight of is that we know where we are going and to whom we are responsible.

Remember: one day very soon, we will account to our Saviour for the use of the time He has given us. 

Prayer: Almighty God, let us always be mindful that you have created us to serve you.  Show us how best to use our time effectively through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reign supreme now and forever.  Amen