Let’s question “the best use of the time”

Paul, in the book of Ephesians says, 

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

We are told to make the “best use of the time.” So, let’s be intentional about our time (“look carefully”). Let’s question “the best use of the time.” Let’s use technology as an aid and not a distraction and hindrance to accomplishing the things we have been given to do. 

Jonathan Edwards points out that

“If men were as lavish of their money as they are of their time, if it were as common a thing for them to throw away their money, as it is for them to throw away their time, we should think them beside themselves, and not in the possession of their right minds. Yet time is a thousand times more precious than money; and when it is gone, cannot be purchased for money, cannot be redeemed by silver or gold.”[1]

Peter F. Drucker further points out the importance of time. He reminds us that 

“The process we call ‘accomplisment,’ this is time.”[2]

Further, R. C. Sproul says,

“We all have an equal measure of time in every day. Where we differ from one another is in how we redeem the time allotted.”[3]

So, how will we steward the time alloted?

Again, Edwards, exhorts us: 

“Once the time of life is gone, when once death is come, we have no more to do with time; there is no possibility of obtaining the restoration of it, or another space in which to prepare for eternity. If a man should lose the whole of his worldly substance, and become a bankrupt, it is possible that his loss may be made up. He may have another estate as good. But when the time of life is gone, it is impossible that we should ever obtain another such time.”[4]

Teresa of Avila tells us to chose well what we do.

“Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you only have one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and that there is one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.”[5]

We have amazing motivation as we consider what is required of us. 

Or, in Isaac Watts’ words:

“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”[7]

Let’s not waste our lives on frivolous pursuits. Let’s not let sports suck up all of our lives. Let’s not use all our energy on entertainment.

Let’s live with passion! Let’s spend and be spent for the purposes that God has given us! Let’s work for God’s glory and the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom! 

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[1] Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, “The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming it.”

[2] Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive (New York, NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967), 25.

[3] R. C. Sproul, “Time Well Spent.”

[4] Edwards, “The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming it.”

[5] Quoted from Shane Claiborne, Johathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro book Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervon, 2010), 481) in K. P. Yohannan’s book No Longer a Slumdog: Bringing Hope to Children in Crisis (Carrollton, TX: gsa books, 2011), front matter).

[6] “The Valley of Vision,” 33.

[7] “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”