Life is short. James 4:14 says, "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." In knowing this, when I heard my pastor speak about "Redeeming the Time" the other Sunday during the morning worship service, it really spoke to my heart.
Part of the scripture text our Pastor was reading from was Ephesians 5:15-16 which states, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." During the sermon when "redeeming the time" was stated I began to examine myself and how I measure up to this truth. As the Lord examined me and tried my reins and heart (Psalm 26:2) my mind went to a few of things. The first thing is how do I spend my time. The second is how do I train my children with their/our time. The third thing was what does this really mean. I would like to share with you some thoughts on these three things.
How do I spend my time?
This is a question all of us should consider. As we saw above, our life is like a vapor or mist. It appears for just a little time and then vanishes. Since our life here on earth is short, we should seriously consider our life and it's purpose. We must first realize that the life we have is not our own. Sure we are given certain freedoms to live our life out as we desire, however our life is not something we gave to ourselves. We are stewards of a life that was given to us. Our life was created in the image of God. God created our life to glorify Him. Therefore since our life is not our own, we must consider how God wants us to use the life He has provided to us.
In examining myself, I thought back to how many wasted years I have in my life. There were so many years I served my selfish fleshly lusts. I only sought out what I wanted or what I thought was best. Even after accepting Christ into my life, I had to learn that it's not all about me. I had to realize that the time God has provided in what I call "my life" was His time and needed to be used for Him. So I ask, how do you spend your time? What do you spend your time thinking about? How do you use your body for God? How do you use the talents God has blessed you with for Him? Do you spend time with God in His Word? Do you spend time with unGodly people or Godly people most of the time. If you spend more time with unGodly people, is that because you are consciously and deliberately sharing the Gospel with them? Do you spend time seeking God first in order to grow?
I think it is important to examine ourselves with questions like this so we can provide an answer. If the answers we provide are more focused around ourselves in the world, then we know what we need to work on and pray for and then make a change. We will need to focus our time and efforts more toward God and away from worldly things. It's not always easy since the spirit wars against the flesh and vice versa, however with God all things are possible, especially redirecting our time and energy toward Him instead of ourselves or the world. Also remember, Satan would love to trick you into spending time away from God and Godly things since He knows that any time away from God is dangerous and can make you fall (or not repent if you aren't saved) which is what he desires to happen to you.
How do I train my children with their time?
Once we figure out how we spend our time, we then need to consider how we are training our children with their time. The first thing to ensure is that we are using our time wisely for the Lord since most of what children learn is caught, not taught. Our children are watching us and will develop their own habits of how time is spent. We want to make sure that what they are catching from how we spend our time is something pleasing to the Lord. So are your children seeing and hearing you pray, not just over food and at bedtime, but in the morning before the day starts and also during the day as troubles come? Are your children seeing you spend time studying God's Word? Are they seeing you share the Word of God with them and use the Word of God to view the things of the world (e.g., Biblical worldview)? Are we showing them that focusing on God and separating time for Him everyday is important?
Even though most of their learning is caught, children still obviously learn from what is taught. We need to ensure that what we are teaching them measures up with the word of God. For instance, we should be teaching them proper balance of time. We must teach them proper use of time working, in pleasure, in chores, in play, and various other parts of life. Again they will see this in how we live out our life however often we will need to specifically teach about these things so it is clear. As a Christian, there really isn't much time to be lazy. Sure we can and should have rest days/times, however serving in God in some fashion is much needed in our families and communities and should be taught as such. Providing examples to them on how to achieve this is important. Sharing specific scriptures for teaching them how to use their time are priceless investments for the mind and heart that will carry them their entire lives.
Also, even in our down time, what are we training them to do? Are we training them to simply watch television or movies or listen to music. If so, what are we training them to watch or listen to with the time they have? How about Bible and prayer time? How are we training them about this? The more we think on these things, the more we will be aware of them and work to improve how we are training them with their time.
What does it mean to "redeem the time"?
Let's revisit Ephesians 5:15-16 which states, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." The ESV Bible translates this as, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." The Greek word for "redeeming" is exagorazō (pronounced ex-ag-or-ad'-zo) and it means in part "to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own." So "redeeming the time" means we need to use all the time we have in doing good works for the Lord. We need to make every effort to prioritize our time around God. We need to make Him and His Word in our life the most important thing. We must not waste one moment serving ourselves but rather God first and others second. We must immerse our time in things of God.
Why? Because time is short and the days are evil. There is so much evil around us it is not funny. Satan is real. He is working through so many things. He captures our time with entertainment. He captures our minds and attention through books, movies, music, games, hobbies, our homes, our friends, our families, and our work. Satan is also deceiving parents and children through the public school system in teaching secular humanism, evolution and causing a wedge between children and parents by separating them for hours a day and influencing them that the state/government/community should have a primary role in raising children instead of parents having the primary role. Satan is able to be subtle, appear as an angel of light, and even a roaring lion. Satan wants more than anything to capture our time because he knows that it is short and if he can only distract us enough to spend more time with him, we won't spend it with God. And Satan knows that if we aren't spending time with God here, we won't be spending time with God in eternity. As second Corinthians 2:11 states, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." We must not be ignorant of the devices Satan uses to capture our minds and hearts. We must be on guard all the time so that we can keep our hearts with all diligence.
I will end with this: The best use of the time anyone has on this side of eternity is with God and for God. We don't need to waste another second serving the enemy.We must repurpose our hearts to spend more time in God's Word and seek to train ourselves and our children on proper ways to spend time in a God honoring way. "Redeeming the time" essentially challenges us as to what we are going to profit with the time we are alotted. Life is short. The only real profit that will pay dividends for eterntiy is time with and for God. I hope the Lord will show all of us how better we can accomplish this.
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