Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Living with no excuses”
Our Bible verse for today: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Use your time wisely.”
The other day I paid a visit to an elderly lady who is close to death. She is in her 80s and has been sick for a long time. Now she is bedridden, very weak, and her mind is wandering. One moment she remembered who I was and the next minute she was sure she didn’t know me. It wasn’t too many years ago that this woman was healthy and active. But, the years pass, the body declines, and one day death comes. And, it happens faster than we realize.
My favorite quote regarding the truth that time is valuable and we have to use it wisely comes from Benjamin Franklin. Rephrased in modern language it reads, “Do you value life? Then value your time, because time is the stuff life is made of.”
Yes, life is made up of time, and we only get a limited amount of it. Beyond that, once a moment is gone you can never get it back. It is gone forever. So use your time wisely. That’s the lesson of Psalm 90:12. You only have a limited number of days allotted to you and they will pass faster than you realize, so use them well.
One of the most common excuses people use for not doing things is “I don’t have the time.” Well, that’s just not true. You do have the time. You have as much time as anyone else has. You have 60 seconds in every minute, 60 minutes in every hour, 24 hours in every day, 7 days in every week, and 52 weeks in every year. The question isn’t whether or not you have the time – the question is how you will use that time. The truth is that ultimately you will use your time for the things that are most important to you.
Now, I can hear your protests all the way over here in my office in Fairfield Glade, TN. You’re protesting about all the things you want to do (and which you claim are “important” to you), but which you just don’t have the time for, right? Well, if those things were important enough to you then you would do them instead of doing something else.
If working out so you can lose weight is really that important to you, you would go to the gym instead of watching television. If painting the shutters was important enough to you, then you would paint them instead of mowing the lawn. If writing my next book was important enough to me, then tonight instead of spending two hours reading a book I would spend those two hours writing a book.
You get the point. You make the time for the things that are most important to you. Many times we claim that something is important to us but then rather than doing it we spend the time doing other things instead. Nope, sorry, if you spent the hour on the couch instead of on the treadmill then being on the treadmill just wasn’t really that important to you.
As we approach 2018 and you give thought to the goals you are going to set and the things you hope to achieve in the New Year, I encourage you to use your time well. Don’t waste it on frivolous things. You only get so much of life. Use it well. Don’t make excuses.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 