To God be the glory for bringing us into another year. Thank God that you made it despite all the challenges of last year. The old year has passed on into history and will never come again. Leave it behind and face this New Year. It is new (not old) and in its beginning. This is the early morning of the year and if you do not set out quickly but begin to procrastinate now it will be terrible for the whole year. It is a year of 12 months, 53 weeks and 365 days. It is God’s great gift to you so that you can do well this year and end it on a note of victory. In the beginning God… (Gen. 1:1a). Every good beginning must be with God so start it with Him and from His presence. Let Him set your journey for you. Pick your victuals and start early and let His presence go with you.
Note that today the matter of time has become even more crucial and more urgent than before. It is so urgent in my heart that you can see that there are no preambles. If you are a watcher of the times and you analyse currect events you will know that everyone who takes the prophetic Word seriously must become very serious with his life and urgent with his time. Current events must urge you to know that the fig tree has already budded. Trump’s (the American president) recent announcement that America will move the American Embassy to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a giant sign that in the prophetic calendar the return of the Son of Man is very imminent. This means that Satan’s rage will increase and things will become tougher. As you look up for His coming you need to be ready to endure many things that will happen because it is only those that endure to the end that shall be saved. Then you must press on so that when He comes or death meets you, He will approve you. You must not lose momentum now because you will simply play out the devils script.
Then the LORD told us at the cross over vigil that He wants to make you an oak of righteousness – a notable person under who men will come for shade, etc. He wants to make you a person of influence who will be part of those to advance His Kingdom. For this reasons He says He has appointed unto them that mourn in Zion, To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;… The LORD wants to decorate you, anoint you and put upon you a garment of praise in the place of the spirit of heaviness. This means that this year is declared a year of praise. You must refuse the spirit of heaviness – a heavy heart that causes sorrow, grumbling, murmuring, etc. No, you must refuse that down spirit and allow a rapture spirit that will enable you offer God sacrifices of praise. If you do this then the LORD will bring you to the place He has ordained to do this year and henceforth.
So, submit to Him, put your hand in His hand and follow Him and move on with purpose in every step so that you can reach the mark He has set for your life by the end of the year.
YOUR DAY V
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
(Ps. 90:12).
This is appearing as one of our key texts. It is the prayer we began to pray in our last digest and which we will yet continue to pray.
So – Because time and life can be wasted under God’s anger because of sin, or outrightly squandered by carelessness, mismanagement, etc. So, you also must be deliberate and walk with God and live according to His will. You need His favour, peace and quiet and a life of steady progress to overcome in life and win at the end.
Now, it is because time and life can become wasted and filled with regrets that we are praying with the Psalmist to be helped to number our days so as to be able to be wise in the usage of this very important commodity. If we knew how to number our days – order our days rightly; use wisely all the time we have; etc. – we will not be begging to be taught how to number it. So it is obvious that time needs to be managed if it will be put to the best use otherwise it will waste and not be recovered.
Then if we do not number (manage) our time we will not acquire the wisdom with which to use it aright. Many people use time foolishly and squander it because they did not first sit down to receive the wisdom and strategy of how to apply it profitably. The first matter is not to attack any task no matter how urgent or important it may seem. But to sit first or kneel before the Lord and see how to go about it and the best way to use time to accomplish it.
So let us keep praying this prayer and keep learning as we now look at a few things that will help us in managing our days and day.
PRIORITIZING
There are too many things that compete for a man’s attention and time at every stage of life. They cannot all be done. Even if they can be done they cannot be done at the same time. All the tasks you have to accomplish at every stage of your life do not carry the same weight and importance. It is for this that you need to put them in their order of importance so as to know what to do first and what to do later and what not to do at all or delegate.
To do this well you need to set the goals and agenda that you want to achieve. It is in the context of this agenda/goal that you will judge what a priority is and what is not. If you are a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ then your relationship with Him and His mandate over your life will be the context for prioritizing. A politician, a business man, an academic, a sportsman, a normal housewife will all have their priorities. All who do not know the Lord and are not committed to Him will not have the same interests and priorities as those that have. Notice what the Master taught:
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
(Matt 6:22-24 KJV).
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
(Matt 6:33 KJV).
A cursory look at this insight from the Master, given to His disciples, quickly show that your priorities will depend on your vision/focus, who is your Master and what you seek first. What you seek first should be your priority.
So, firstly you cannot set your life’s goals and your agenda beyond what you are seeing and what you have set your eyes upon. Your eye is the light of your body. The light of your body and of your existence and of everything you will do depends on the soundness and condition of your eye, if your eye is single speaks of singularity of focus and purpose. Any person that is focused on Christ (the Light) will surely have his body (entire being) full of light. Such will have clarity and direction and live purposefully for the Lord.
But if thine eye be evil, then your whole body and entire being will be full of darkness. This eye speaks of divergent vision. This person is not concentrating on the Lord but is covetous, inconsistent, unreliable, hypocritical, sometimes confused. Such person does not have a clear direction for life, will be double minded and will not have clarity in the things he does. Such will surely serve two (2) or more masters. Summarily, he will want to serve God and mammon which the Master says is impossible. No one can be devoted to two (2) things with equal devotion at the same time.
In the parable Jesus spoke of the labourers who came to labour in a householders vineyard and came in at different times, when it was time to pay he paid them all the same amount irrespective of when they came and the ones who came first complained that they should have received more. Note the householder’s reaction to that:
But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
(Matt 20:13-15 KJV).
Yes those whose eyes are evil are evil men, jealous, covetous, competitive and are never contented. Such are full of selfish ambition (not vision) and will not have a clear direction, clear eyes and clear heart and will want to pursue both God and money. Such will not have clear cut priorities and therefore may not be able to know what are the most important things they are pursuing with their lives. When your eye is single on the Lord Jesus Christ and He is your Lord and Saviour and you are ardently following Him then He will be your priority and you will know His mission for your life. You will have light and direction for living and know what is more important among the many things contesting for your time.
So, the first question is how is your eye? Is it sharply focused on the Light and concentrating on Him or is it here and there, competing, dubious, trying to serve two masters, etc. All the men that achieved much in life had masters they devoted themselves to and so had clear-cut priorities which guided what was most important and least important in their lives and so what to pursue with their lives.
Secondly is the matter of what you seek first in your life. Continuing from verse 25 Jesus taught the disciples that they must not be anxious and worry about what they will eat and drink and wear. This is what preoccupies the men of this world. It is uppermost in their evaluations, conversations, pursuits, lifestyle, etc. It is what they wake up to pursue and what is primary in their lives. Whenever they pray that is their prayer request. This is why many people are only living to make a living. This is the pursuit and priority of these thoughtless wordings. At the end when their lives and health have become squandered they are full of regrets.
Friend, listen to the Lord Jesus: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry… Yes do not leave the substance and important things and pursue the additives. The Masters says if you pursue the kingdom then you will be given those things as well; they shall be added unto you. The way the Master says it is interesting: seek ye first. So there are many things that a man can legitimately seek in his lifetime and with life but there are some things to seek first and other things later and some things not to seek at all. Your priorities determines what to seek first and such thing(s) are what you rate as must important, indispensable and inevitable.
First becomes a crucial word in prioritizing your time in your day. Firstly, first could mean early in the day, early in the morning. How you start your days determine how you will do in that day and in your entire Day. The early part of your day is when you are rested after the nights rest, when your thoughts are fresh and it is the best time to receive revelations from the LORD in His Word before the sun arises and the heat begins and soon you will start sweating and get tired. It is when to meet with the LORD and receive the agenda for the day. Jesus usually started the day with God the Father, alone and in seclusion (Mark 1:35). It is because of this that He did not bow to the pressures of men and got distracted and diverted. On one of such days Peter found Him where He was ‘hiding’, shut in with the Father and told Him that, All men seek for thee. Notice the Master’s reply: Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth. Yes, if you do not start the day before God and with Him the pressures of life and men will soon take you off your track into the bush and you will soon begin to live according to the needs and dictates of men rather than from Heaven. You will be responding to needs not to God and your vision may soon become blurred and you may not continue and fulfill your mandate. What you do first every day of your life shows your priority.
Then first could mean early in life. It is always good to come to the LORD as early as possible in life and to begin to follow Him. If this happens the person will soon have right priorities as he becomes intimate with God. You will find that such people do well in life and achieve much for God in their day. So if you have come to the LORD then pursue Him and waste no more time being double minded because you are not focused and your eye is not single.
Friend, seek ye first the Kingdom and His righteousness… Set your priorities right and do first things first. God and His Kingdom should be the most important subjects in your life. If this becomes true all other things will be added and you will not need to worry and struggle. Then you will discover that you will live for what is worth living for and spend your day worthily and end up fulfilled. May you apply your heart to wisdom and stop being foolish.