INVEST YOUR TIME WISELY

WISDOM FOR LIVING DAILY DEVOTIONAL

JUNE 19,  2021

TOPIC: INVEST YOUR TIME WISELY

BY T. O. BANSO 

“Don’t long for ‘the good old days,’ for you don’t know whether they were any better than today” (Ecclesiastes 7:10 New Living Translation).

Some people say that time is money. But I believe a superior truth is that time is life. Everybody has twenty-four hours per day and 86,400 seconds each day. An Irish Proverb says, “Time is so precious that it is dealt out to us only in the smallest possible fractions-a tiny moment at a time.”

As the clock ticks each second, your life on earth is reducing. Therefore, you must invest your time wisely. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom” (New Living Translation).

John C. Maxwell, says, “Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.” Given this, you must organize your life so that you can make the best use of the 24 hours that God has given everybody equally per day.

Your 24-hour day represents your life each day. Are you investing it or wasting it? Are you living your life each day purposely or you do anything that comes your way? The wrong use of time is a disservice to destiny. One of the marks of a wise person is in the judicious use of time. Wise people don’t spend their time doing just anything; they utilize their time on purpose. They invest their time in productive ventures. They invest their time wisely.

Many people are regretting today because they failed in the past to invest their time well. They missed their time. May you not miss your time in Jesus’ name. However, you must appreciate the time that God has given you and do the right thing at the right time.

Avoid the error that the time will always be there for you to do what you’re supposed to do whenever you like. This is not true. There are things that when you fail to do at a particular time, you may never be able to do them again.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven” (New Living Translation). Subsequent verses tell us about the different times for different things (verses 2-8). Verse 11 says God has made everything beautiful in its time. Therefore, make sure you do the right thing at the right time. You won’t always have the time to some things.

Some problems must be fixed now, otherwise, they will grow in magnitude and can become complicated. You should address them now. As the adage goes, a stitch in time saves nine. Do you have problems in your marriage, other relationships, career, and so on? Don’t ignore them or live in denial of them. You can’t pretend they don’t exist and hope that they’ll disappear. Faith does not deny reality.

Use your time wisely for positive results. Don’t procrastinate. Procrastination is the thief of destiny! “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done” (Ecclesiastes 11:4 New Living Translation). As the saying goes, time and tide wait for no man. Time is a scarce commodity. God doesn’t give you sufficient time to do everything you like. You have only a limited time and you should invest it in the right things.

Use your time productively, not for sinful pleasures. You can’t do everything. You can’t be available everywhere. Therefore, don’t overcommit yourself; don’t congest your life. Devote your time to what is necessary. Attend to what is important. Make the most of everyday.

Ephesians 5:15-18 says, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,  redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (New King James Version).

Evaluate your life today and identify people and things that waste your time. Eliminate time-wasters so as to maximize your time and, indeed, maximize your life. A time-waster is a life-waster. Don’t spend time; invest it. Time wasted cannot be regained. As someone said, “In time take time while time doth last, for time is no time when time is past.” Only God can restore lost time. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25 New King James Version).

Do you waste your time on the internet or phone?  Do you spend more time than it’s necessary at play? Is your time wasted on watching television? Nobody has more than 24 hours per day. It is your responsibility to prioritize what you should do and allocate enough time to them such as your fellowship with God, family, work, and friends.

Invest time and money in Bible-based materials that will increase your faith and help you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2). Invest time and money in self-improvement. What you devote most of your time and money to reveals what is most important to you. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12:34). And your investment will yield returns – negatively or positively.

Someone cannot be wasting his time reading and watching unedifying things and wonder why his life is in a mess. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by the kind of fruit it produces; figs never grow on thornbushes or grapes on bramble bushes (Luke 6:43-44).

Don’t join people who waste their time talking about the good old days. Some wish they were born then! This is useless. What can you do about the past time? Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns, “Don’t long for ‘the good old days,’ for you don’t know whether they were any better than today” (New Living Translation). Even if things were better in those days, how does that benefit you today?

Face the reality of the time you are living in and devote your time to what is necessary. Avoid the company of those who do nothing today because of their belief that tomorrow will be better than today. They are waiting for tomorrow, the perfect time to do what they should do.

But as we have read in Ecclesiastes 11:4, if you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Today is the tomorrow you spoke about yesterday. Today is your best day. Invest your time today so that you will have a better tomorrow.

Are you yet to give your life to Jesus? Today is the best time. Don’t delay further. Tomorrow may be too late. “For God says, ‘At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.’ Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2 New Living Translation).

The two thieves who were nailed to the cross with Jesus could have been saved right there on the cross. But only one was wise enough to take the last chance he had. He didn’t waste his time despite the way he had lived his life in the past. But the other mocked Jesus.

Luke 23:39-43 says, “Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him,  ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (New King James Version).

If you’re not yet born again, don’t scoff at the message of salvation. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 New King James Version). Today is your day of salvation. Invest your time in your salvation by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

You can never fulfil your destiny without investing time and other resources in prayer, equipping yourself and others who work with you, building helpful relationships. Jesus invested His time in the twelve disciples whom He chose, equipping them for three and half years (Mark 3:13-19). That’s why we have the gospel today.

Daniel prayed three times a day giving thanks to God (Daniel 6:10). The psalmist says he will praise God seven times a day (Psalm 119:164). Praying and praising God is a wise investment of time. Don’t be too busy not to have time for prayer or to praise God. As busy as Jesus was, He never failed to invest His time in solitude with God. Jesus also invested His time in preaching the gospel. You should do likewise. He has sent those who believe in Him to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). Be a soul winner.

Don’t become lazy and spend your time gossiping from house to house, getting into other people’s business, and saying things they shouldn’t. Not only the younger widows are capable of doing this as 1 Timothy 5:13 says. Invest your time in diligent labour in your calling and destiny as Paul did. He laboured more abundantly in the ministry than the other apostles but the grace of God which was with him (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Invest your time wisely.

TAKE ACTION!

If you are not born again, you need to give your life to Jesus now. I urge you to take the following steps: *Admit you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life – your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your life. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church. There they will teach you how to grow in the Kingdom of God.

Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto you today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I surrender my life to Jesus now and invite Him into my heart. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.

I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church in your area where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. The Lord be with you.

PRAYER POINTS: Father, forgive me for the wasteful use of my time. Holy Spirit, help me to organize my life and invest my time wisely. Help me to set my priorities right and allocate time appropriately. I shall discipline myself to decongest my life and attend to only the right things. Father, teach me to make the most of my time, so that I may grow in wisdom.

(For over 600 in-depth and powerful messages by T. O. Banso, visit www.cedarministry.org).

T. O. Banso is the President, Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
Phone No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523
WhatsApp No: +2349081295947
Email: cedarministryintl@yahoo.com,
cedarministryng@gmail.com
Website: www.cedarministry.org