TIME: OUR SHARED COMMODITY PART TWO

What about your soul and that of your love ones?

If you read my entry yesterday, you may have realized that I spoke about time with a sense of urgency. As I stated yesterday, this blog is not meant to be a source of indictment nor is it in anyway intended to bring condemnation or sorrow. It is simply my personal reflection on life and I just wanted to lovingly share my heart with my friends from around the world. You are more than welcome to write your comments, if God has been speaking to you through the few words that have penned.

God’s Common Grace

According to God’s providence and His common grace, we all share this great gift called time. As mentioned earlier, after Christ, time is perhaps one of the greatest gifts that God has ever given to mankind. What you do with your time speaks volume about your take on life. When you think about it, we all have been allotted 24 hours in a day to do what God has planned for us to do for the time that we are on this earth. As long as we have breath, we have the opportunity to hear and to share the good news of Jesus Christ. God gives man time to repent as the gospel is being shared around the globe. How loving and gracious is our God? Paul was right when he wrote, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)

What have you been doing with your time? What is your personal philosophy on life? How are you spending your time on this side of eternity? How is your relationship with God and your fellow man? What is your God-given purpose in this life? As I study the Scriptures, I have discovered that “life is short; it is my responsibility to make my life count for God and His kingdom agenda, and that when it is all said and done I will have to give an account to Almighty God.” I like to tell people that “life is good but eternal life is better.” That is my philosophy on the journey called life.

The Preparation

As I prepare to spend eternity with my Creator it is my desire to grow in wisdom. I know that most of us do not spend most of our time thinking about eternity. Most people spend their time worrying about If you focus on what you’re going through, chances are you’ll never get through it. Another way of putting it, God can use and redeem hard, difficult times; and the difficult processes in life to produce Christ-like character in us. We’re reminded of this in Psalms chapter 90, verse 12. Listen to these words, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (NLT). So my friends, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).

View Eternity in Perspective

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their [our] hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” I pray that the Lord would help us to have the right perspective on life while focusing on what is most important in light of eternity. King David says it well in Psalms 20:7, "Some trusts in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." During these perilous times, we cannot depend on our limited understanding and we cannot afford to trust in our human efforts to earn our way to heaven. I encourage you to "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. (Psalms 37:3-7).

By the way as you spend your time with others, please share the hope of eternal life with them as well! God bless you as you become a good steward of your time!