I have never had a website, a Facebook page, Pinterest account or a Blog until January of this New Year 2015! I am officially welcoming a new world of technological communication with the opening of all four at once! With its availability comes a huge responsibility to use them wisely…they can become time consuming!
“Our greatest danger in life is in permitting the urgent things to crowd out the important.” Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. used to say, “Never sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate.”
Everyone receives an equal supply of time. The only difference between us is in the way we spend it. Each week brings us 168 golden hours. We spend approximately 56 hours for sleep and recuperation. We spend approximately 28 hours for eating and personal duties. We spend approximately 40-50 hours for earning a living. We have 30-40 hours left to spend just as we wish. But how do we spend them? How many hours for recreation? How many hours for family communication? How many hours for the regular worship of God (devotion, fellowship, meditation, etc.) How many hours for personal service in the name of Christ? Will we rob God? We can and we do!
Perhaps we may be very busy with good things, yet too busy for the best things. The great question is: Have we made wise use of our time as good stewards of Christ?
Henry Clay Trumbull said, “Today is, for all that we know, the opportunity and occasion of our lives. On what we do or say today may depend the success and completeness of our entire life struggle. It is for us, therefore, to use every moment of today as if our very eternity were dependent on its words and deeds”…
I know for me with this new commitment of 2015, I am so challenged to be circumspect with the “Steps of ACTION” I am setting for myself to stay focused. Here are the first two:
1. Define the goal and set the priorities necessary to hit the mark. This will fill my life with godly purpose and direction. My commitment is to your personal success each Monday morning and my first priority will be to set a defined amount of time to reach that goal. That will entail allowing the Word of God to “dwell richly” in me during my daily devotional and worship time with Him (Matt. 6:33). My goal is to please Him first! Gal. 3:3 is my monitor, for it admonishes and asks me “…Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” Never, it cannot be done with eternal purpose!
2. I am taking some of that time given each week to ask myself some important questions.
When I get to the end of this year/life, what do I want to look back on and say I accomplished?
Did I give personally with my service to God, with my family, friends, professionally…?
Who did I glorify…myself or my Lord?
How can I reach the full potential of what God has planned for me this year? Philippians 3:12-14 says we are to press on toward the (set) goal, forgetting the past (no bitterness) and reach toward the future…
