READ SIGN TO KILL TIME?

“Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15–17, AMP)

Hanging behind the check-out register in a Cincinnati candle shop is a large sign which reads:
“There is a very good reason for this sign being here and you standing in front of it reading it. It is here to keep you busy. We realize how annoying it can be just standing around doing nothing, trying to find someone to help you. So, we have this sign here for you to read, and hope that by the time you finish reading it one of our salespeople will have found you. “P.S. If not, please read this sign again.” - (Quote culled from Encyclopaedia of 7700 Illustrations)

Be careful how you kill time, your future and indeed your life are inextricably bound with what you do with time today. Rather, God's wise counsel is that you redeem the time and make the best use of every opportunity given you!

Time, once spent can never again be reclaimed. If you are twenty years old today, for example, the implication is that you can never be nineteen again. You may feel like a nineteen year old and be equally as active, but you are no longer nineteen and you can never have that time at your disposal again. Time passes by. It moves on even if, in your mind, you may have decided to stand still. 

The great implication of this is that we must wisely try to use up each opportunity available to us as time progresses. And recognizing that God has determined a time and a season for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1), see to it then at each stage of your life and in every moment, that you redeem the time by understanding how God wants you to utilize your time. 

The apostle Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside” (1 Corinthians 13:11, AMP). This is about the proper understanding and use of time by which all ones faculties and being are harnessed for a fully productive life.

Have you been "reading the sign to kill time" or "redeeming the time" in the shop of life? Time is such a precious gift and must be used wisely to the glory of God. As a sensible, intelligent person, make the very most of your time. Be careful to observe how you walk, endeavouring to live purposefully and worthily in Christ!

God bless you as you heed his counsel to use time wisely. It is a challenge to faithful stewardship of time.
Location: London, UK

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