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Oh Why Not Today?
We live in a time-oriented society. Everything we do is connected in some way or the other with time. Our jobs, homes, schools, even our leisure hours are directly related to the number of hours in a day, week, year. We hurry here and we hurry there and hurrying has to do with time. Our children are “slow” or “fast” students and that has to do with time. Our cell phones are connected to what time it is. Our television log is merely a time list to tell us when a certain program is scheduled. In fact, it’s all but impossible to name something that is not in some way related to time.
All of God’s commandments are time related. God has never given man a commandment on which he could not start today. No where in the entirety of the scriptures is there even the slightest hint of approved procrastination. Faith, repentance, baptism are commands He wants obeyed, and He wills that they should be obeyed today. The Lord encourages us to work today for “the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4). None of God’s stipulations to His creatures will tolerate our putting them off until later. True, we may not be able to finish today, but there is not one of them on which we can’t start today.
Many, if not most, of man’s problems are related directly to his mis-use of time. Think about it–probably the most common excuse in religion is “I don’t have time.” Why is this the case? Has God not given us enough time? Are we slaves to the fact that there are not enough hours in the day? Any rational person can answer that question. The fact is man is notoriously famous for grossly mis-using his time. When a person says his job takes too much of his time and because of that fact he can’t attend, work, worship, he tells an untruth. The job is not what’s taking all his time...he is taking all his time. When a person spends more time in pleasure than in service to God, pleasure is not to blame, but that man’s misuse of his time. Can we not see that when we are just “too busy” to serve God we are just too busy!? When all our “reasons” are related to being too busy, we are admitting to a poor management of the time God has given us.
God has given us life and life is time. He has entrusted us with 24 hours in each day, 7 days in each week, four weeks in each month and 12 months in each year. Every man’s time is the same. It is our responsibility to recognize that we are stewards of that time we have been given just as we are stewards of the material possessions with which God has blessed us. Furthermore, we must be come to realize that we are to be held accountable for how we use that time He has afforded us, just as we are accountable for the material possessions we have been given, and just as we are to answer for how we used our talents and abilities. Time belongs to God. He has lent to us a part of it. One day we will run out of our allotted time. As for right now ,each of us is responsible for what time we have left.
Yes, time is the most important possession we have. Without it, we are no longer here. It’s time to do what we can with what we have left of it. “Today is the day of salvation” (Hebrews 13:3) is a powerfully significant statement. It states emphatically that if one wants to go to heaven, he must start today. Yesterday is gone; it cannot be reclaimed. Tomorrow’s time is speculation and we have no real assurance that it will even come. But today? That’s different. We have today. We can use today. It is in our possession. It belongs to us: now.
But let us not be deceived. We cannot horde time, nor can we put it inn some bank for safe keeping. We can only use it now, while it is still here. May God help us–each one of us–to realize that time is not to be wasted. Let us “redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:16), for the days may not be long. “Today is the day of salvation.” Let us be about the Father’s business while we may. Oh, why not today?
