Use Your Time Wisely

 

DAILY VITAMIN 

- Use Your Time Wisely

"Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should." (Psalm 90:12 TLB)

Just like our theme verse supposes, many are just like David who prayed, "LORD, how long will I live? When will I die? Tell me how soon my life will end." (Psalm 39:4 GNV), because in a way they believe if they knew they'd be more intentional with their lives. 

But is that really true?

Anyway, I'll answer the first question for you: it could be anytime.

We are all on borrowed time here. We are all on a clock. God has numbered our days, and whether we know it or not it's counting. And fast.

This might sound weird to you, but it's always been strange to see people act like someone's life has ended when the doctor says he/she has only a year or less to live. Because the truth is we could even die before they do. We are all on the clock; the only difference is that those guys can see theirs now, while we can't. In fact, there's no guarantee that you'd outlive that ninety year old next door or that fellow with a gigantic tumor in his brain. It's a bitter truth, but to truly live and live right you need to be aware of this fact. The fact that all men are like the wind. They can be gone anytime. It's simply how the world works. 

So know this for a fact, there's an expiry date on us all. The world is a like a shelf, and we all have our shelf life, but a shelf life means nothing once the product is being used effectively until it can no longer be. And in our case, till then we are still primed for the purpose for which we were created. Nothing was ever made without a purpose in mind, including you, and its effectiveness is based on whether or not it did what it was made to do.

Now how does this concern you? You might sleep in church all day, but that doesn't make you super useful to God in the real sense of the word. There's a pivotal reason God sent you down here. If you're not doing that, you're acting contrary to function and as such against purpose. And if our usefulness is measured on how effectively we use the fullness of our designation, then it means you're failing presently if you aren't doing what God precisely wants you to. This is why it's necessary you learn what God put you here to do and do it. It doesn't have to be something extraordinary. It doesn't need to have a wow factor. It could be simple. But it's enough. Do it and you'd have done the most. Recall what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: "Those which seem feeble and less honourable are the most important." (1 Cor 12:22). To God it isn't always about the magnitude of the deed, but the alignment of the deed to His will. Thus, a mite becomes much mightier than a gold coin.

Jesus said, "As long as it is day, I must keep doing the work of him who sent me; night is coming when no one can work." (John 9:4 GNV). The truth is even though you might not want to hear this, a lot of people won't live long, but it doesn't mean they can't live well. The night comes to us at different periods, that's why the measure of life isn't in how long but how well. Not in years but in deeds. Jesus' night came at his thirty third year, yet he outlived a lot of folks who reached septuagenarianism. Thus, His advice. Use the day well before the night comes, for it can come anytime. And when it does, we'll sleep. However, there would be no regret if we did all we were fashioned to at the allotted period of time. Because that's what being effective is all about: doing what's needed not what's wanted. What's required not what's desired. What must be and not what could be. Doing you--at least the you you were created to be. Like Jesus.

In lieu of that, Paul said, "So be careful how you live. Don't live like ignorant people, but like wise people. Make good use of every opportunity you have, because these are evil days." (Eph 5:15-16 GNV). Ignorant people live like tomorrow is promised. Like it's a sure thing. So they procrastinate. Of course tomorrow will come if God wills us to see it, but while we prepare in anticipation of it, we must also use this time now as though it were our last. We have to live each day like it was all we had left. That's how effectiveness is borne. That's the only way you'd give your all every day to ensure you leave nothing undone.

Remember the preacher's word: "So remember your creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, 'I don't enjoy life'"( Eccl 12:1 GNV).

Hence now that you have the time, do what you were always meant to. Stop putting it off till tomorrow. No one knows how many tomorrows they have left. We are all on borrowed time remember. What leaves us as debtors will be our inability to appropriate our true purpose for living. But I believe you will. I will. So together, please let's use our time wisely while we yet have it.