EPHESIANS 5:15-16 – Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

THEME OF THE DAY. TICK-TOCK-TICK-TOCK. Today, we enter into a new year, even new decade. This is a time people make New Year resolutions (I am not one of those people). It is also a time people think a little more about the passing of time. We will hear, or even say, words like, “Boy, time flies by” or “Where did the time go?” Then we will also hear, or say, the lament from way too busy people, “I just don’t have the time for all I have today.” Here is an interesting quote from a man named R. E. Neale, “Nothing is more characteristic of modern life than the complaint of, ‘If I only had time.’” And to add to this insightful statement is another from the book Freedom from the Tyranny of the Urgent by Charles Hummel, “When we stop long enough to think about it, we realize that our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time; it is basically a problem of priorities.”

When it comes to life’s priorities, I want you to stop right now and listen with me. Listen intently, slowly, don’t miss its constant and consistent sound. Do you hear it? Do I? If not, try harder. There are so many loud voices all around us – the world, the devil, people, our flesh – that want to drown it out. And they do, they will, if we let them. Now do you, do I, hear it? It is . . . “tick-tock-tick-tock”. . . the sound from the “clock of our lives” reminding us with each tick and tock, we are closer to departing this world and entering into the eternal world.

Friends, life is short. Very short. We may not think so when we are young with all our dreams, goals, energy, and expectations that are largely ahead of us should God allow such a long life. But that season is short-lived. Soon, all of us will come to the point with the arrival of each January realizing that most of our lives are memories from the past. As I often tell myself, and now you, there will be a time when all of us will see our lives mostly through a rear view mirror not a windshield into the future. And that demands of us looking at our lives through the lens of today’s scripture; a lens that guides us to know and then live using time wisely for what matters most. Notice I didn’t write “manage time wisely.” No one manages time. Oh, I know it is big business to write books, conduct seminars, and by extensive computer programs or planners to manage our time. They have value. They do, but underlying all is a misconception. The Bible doesn’t teach time management. It teaches wise time use and investment. To manage something or someone implies a measure of control. We have no control over time. None.

So, how about us as we look back at a completed year and look ahead to a new one and decade? In looking back, are we affirmed by the Lord and our lives, we used our God-given time wisely and invested in what matters most? And as we look ahead, are we more resolved to use our time more wisely and invest more in what matters most? Such questions need answers and the answers begin with what matters most. This isn’t difficult. And we will look to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians that show us what matters most when it comes to living in this world – If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3). What matters most is the use our time and investment in eternal, spiritual, and Christ-centered things. This means parent for eternity; build our marriages for eternity; labor in the Gospel for eternity; and above all, enter the new year with more resolve to live for eternity not this fleeting life. Remember, the clock of our lives is ticking . . . and we cannot stop or rewind it.

PRAYER: “Father, prevent me from wasting away the most precious thing You have given me apart from Jesus – time.”

QUOTE: “We cannot manage time, only use it. Time knows no master; waits on no one. It will be used wisely or foolishly.”