Time Keeps On Slipping, Slipping, Slipping Into The Future.

I had been out of the office for two weeks due to various travels. When I sat down at my desk, I noticed my calendar still showed March even though it was now April 1st. As I tore the top sheet of paper off, I thought how fast time passes these days.

Time. It’s wrapping up quickly. Truly. Even as I continue working on this one article, another two months have come and gone. I’m tempted to take another photo of my office calendar, but the original one confirms the point I’m attempting to convey. Time doesn’t stop for any one person or generation. It just keeps rolling forward until, one day known to God, it will be no more.

“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.”

Each of us is only allotted a certain number of days. Unfortunately, we don’t get to know that number. In an age where medical knowledge has increased exponentially, it isn’t uncommon for people to live to one hundred years or more. Still, every day we hear of people who die suddenly in accidents or a disease that lurked in their bodies, unseen. Sometimes people die for no apparent reason.

Scripture tells us that we are allotted 70 years, and if we live to 80, those extra years are likely to be full of sorrow. This allotment of years is a general lifespan, but truly, life and death are in God’s hands, not ours.

“For all our days are passed away in thy wrath:
we spend our years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labour and sorrow;
for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger?
even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” (Psalm 90:9-12)

To a child, 70 to 80 years seems like an eternity. Those of us who have more decades behind us than before us realize how fast those years pass. Time is a tool that we have to serve God with. We can  let it pass without observation, letting decades pile up behind us, or we can be mindful of its passing, and harness it for a purpose.

“Time is a tool that we have to serve God with. We can let it pass without observation, letting decades pile up behind us, or we can be mindful of its passing, and harness it for a purpose.” -Pat Vick Click To Tweet

HOW ARE YOU SPENDING YOUR ALLOTMENT OF  DAYS?

Are you using your allotted days for God’s glory, or your own? For God’s purpose, or your own? Are you spending your days seeking only happiness, or to be beneficial to the Kingdom of God? Are you concerned about experiencing and accumulating, or pursuing your God-given Calling? Have you deadened your conscience with substances and thrills in order to quiet the small, still voice of God’s Spirit beckoning you to a life of purpose? When you come to the end of your days, which could be any day now, will you be embarrassed by how much more you could have done for God?

TICK TOCK SAYS THE CLOCK

It’s so easy to get caught up in living day to day that we forget the passing of time. Likewise, it’s very easy to get caught up in living in the flesh that we forget about eternity. However, just because we go about our days with no thought for what comes afterward, doesn’t mean it’s not coming. Every time you see a new calendar page, or hear the tick tock of a clock, let it remind you to use your days wisely, because the day is coming quickly when you’ll have to give account for what you did with each of them.

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” (Revelation 20:11-12)

Three Things a Christian Must Learn To Harness

We all want to live productive lives. Lives full of meaning. Beneficial to our families, our communities, and to the Kingdom of God. Most of humanity goes through life hoping for this to be true, but we don’t have to leave it to chance.

If we are going to be all that God has called us to be, we must break free from the lackadaisical mindset of simply drifting through life. Do we really want to live from day to day just hoping for the best outcome? Surely not.

God has called each one of us to be victorious and productive for the Kingdom. There are three areas, if we learn to harness and redirect the energy from, we can expect to live more fully in our high calling for God.

TIME

We’ve all said it before, “There just isn’t enough time!”

We don't know the length of our lives, but we all have the same amount of time as it passes. Click To Tweet Sixty seconds in every minute. Sixty minutes in every hour. Twenty-four hours in every day. Three hundred sixty-five days in every year. Ten years in every decade. Ten decades in every century.

The question is, how do we spend it? What activities do we allow to consume our allotted time?

The more time we spend on one thing, the less time we have for others. Click To TweetEveryone needs down time to relax and refresh, even the occasional vacation to regroup with family. However, countless hours are wasted on a myriad of activities that do not play a meaningful part in our life’s purpose.

Think about how many hours, on average, you spend each day on things like television & movies, social media, hobbies, sports, and talking or texting on the phone. Be honest with yourself. Now, multiply those hours by 7, and multiply that total by 365. How many of your hours last year were spent on insignificance?

That number should be sobering. It represents time that can never be retrieved. It can never be used for anything else. It has already been spent.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

The psalmist understood that we are only allotted so many twenty-four hour periods, and we should use them wisely. We must harness the energy from time spent on frivolous pastimes, and focus it toward activities that will grow us spiritually, and benefit the Kingdom of God.

God expects us to anticipate and make a plan for our days. Click To Tweet

One way to do this is to refrain from time-stealing activities. Another, is to make a written plan for the next day, week, month, year, and decade. This plan can and will be altered as you go along, but will give you a starting point to a life full of purpose.

APPETITE

More. That is the nature of flesh. Always more. Rarely, will flesh say, “That’s enough.” Whether it is food, entertainment, sensual pleasures, or possessions, the flesh wants more.

Our flesh must be disciplined. It must be brought into submission to us, as we are in submission to the Spirit. God has given us fasting to teach our flesh to be satisfied, as well as to destroy every stronghold that controls us.

“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)

Left to its own, flesh will bankrupt your soul. Click To Tweet

Every Christian should have a regular fasting day each week. If fasts are not scheduled, there will never be a convenient time. A good fasting goal to work toward is one day a week, three days a quarter, and seven days a year. Start small and consult with your physician on how to implement fasting while taking medications.

Along with fasting, another way to gain control of your appetite for more in every area of your life is to commit to live more simply. BECOMINGMINIMALIST.COM is a very helpful website to get you started.

THOUGHTS

Did you know that not every thought that comes through your mind is your own? The devil has perfected implanting his own thoughts into people’s minds. When a thought pops into your mind that is not in your nature to think, and doesn’t line up with the Word of God, it must be captured and restrained.

Countless people's lives have come to shipwreck over one thought that wasn't even their own. Click To TweetWe can’t just let our thoughts run wild and reek havoc. It is possible to take control of our thoughts before we think them.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”(Philippians 4:8)

When we realize a thought has breached our filtering system, we must capture it immediately, and bring it into submission.

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Use this process as many times as necessary to take control of your thoughts:

• Identify the rogue thought.
• Acknowledge that it does not line up with the Word and Spirit of God.
• Repent of thinking it.
• Refocus your thoughts by reading and speaking scriptures.
• Redirect your thoughts to productive and spiritually mature topics.

CONCLUSION

It will take effort, focus and consistency to harness the wasted energy consumed by our time, appetites and thoughts. The reward, however, will be so beneficial to our lives, and spiritual growth, that we will only regret not taking control of these areas sooner. You will find that it only takes a few, simple, consistent decisions to set your life on a course filled with productivity and purpose.

Warm Regards, -Pat

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