I’ve been struck over and over again with the issue of time. Every human being has 24hrs in a day and 168 hours in a week. Everybody does something different with those hours and it reflects in their life. Time is the most precious thing we can steward from God and everybody gets the same amount. You can’t chose what family you’re born in, what nation you’re born in or even the giftings you’re born with but you can chose how to invest your time.
Psalm 90 was a Psalm of Moses and he prayed that God would help him number his days. He correlated the understanding of the weightiness of time with a bright heart (wise heart).
I’ve thought a lot about what I can do with the time God has given me to steward, the next 10 years, the next 20 years and the possibly the next 50 years. What things could you master if you set yourself right now for a 50 year journey? What heart qualities could you have if you set it in your heart and prayed for it every day for the next 50 years? What books of the Bible could you have deep understanding in if you made a 50year plan now? How much money could you give away over 50 years if you set it in your heart now?
I used to struggle with giving hours a day to television and movies and it pains me to look back at my youth in that area. The average American watches 3-5hrs a day of television. 3hrs of television a day from the ages of 10-20 would add up to 456 non-stop days of my life just watching tv. 5hrs a day for those 10 years would equal 2 full years of my life wasted in front of a tv. 3hrs a day for 50years would be 6.25 complete years of life wasted. I believe I watched at least 3hrs of tv a day for those years and I wonder what I could have invested in with my time that would have paid off for all eternity. We all have to forget what lies behind and press on towards the goal in Christ but there is also the place of remembering and learning from the past in order to live rightly in the future.
In a second 10 years will have gone by and in a minute 50 years will have gone by for each of us. We have a precious gift to steward and every little chunk of time matters. I want to ask the Lord to help me feel the value of every hour so that I can invest it rightly before His eyes and receive the prize for all eternity.
Jeff