Welcome yet again to another quarter and the last one of 2017. We bless the Name of the Lord for seeing us through the last quarter and bringing us into this new one. We give Him all the glory and pray for strength to journey on to the end of this quarter and the end of this year.
Now, we need to itemize the help of God in its different dimensions if we are to appreciate Him well. He gave you good health, food, clothes, shelter, a family, different gifts and graces, His Word, His Spirit, etc. We must thank Him for all these and more but the one many of us will forget is the time we used this past quarter. We need to always remind us of this provision because without time every other help has no context and will not be. For example, if you did not have time your gifts and everything else would have no relevance. We are stewards of God’s manifold graces but we often forget that one of the crucial ones is time, without which we cannot live and do anything. Due to this ignorance many people do not manage their time deliberately and well and so squander divine resources and are worse off for it. The question we want to put to ourselves is whether we maximized our time last quarter? Did you make progress with all that God gave you or are there regrets because you can see that you wasted a lot of opportunities, spent time doing some things you should not do and so not doing the things you should have done, etc. Well you may not be able to recover lost time but you must learn from your past failures and deliberately make amendments and determine to maximally use your time this quarter so that at the end, your profit and progress will be manifest to you and all.
Even as we encourage ourselves to march on, with purpose in every step, unto the goal of God for your life, we wish to remind everyone that:
I realized another thing, that in this world fast runners do not always win the races, and the brave do not always win the battles. The wise do not always earn a living, intelligent people do not always get rich, and capable people do not always rise to high positions. Bad luck happens to everyone. You never know when your time is coming. Like birds suddenly caught in a trap, like fish caught in a net, we are trapped at some evil moment when we least expect it.
(Eccl. 9:11&12 – GNB)
When the GNB talks of Bad luck happening to everyone it is referring to what other translation describe as time and chance. By this is meant that there is some evidence of luck in life and that accident or something can happen along the way. It is true that man is not in complete control of everything and that therefore success is not certain and like fish he can be caught in a net. A man can be trapped in an evil thing when he least expects. Yet you must not travel with fear but by faith committing your journey to the one who knows the way and controls everything. It should not be a matter of exercising raw energy and showing mental brilliance but acknowledging the LORD in all your ways and leaning not on your own understanding.
Rather than being self confident you need to be prayerful and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you. The leadership of the Holy Spirit will take you beyond time and chance and bring you steadily into your coasts. So do not depend on yourself and lean not upon your own understanding. Move under the cloud and fire, walk closely with the LORD and trust the Spirit to lead you through. To go ahead of God overconfidently is to enter the snare and net of the enemy. If you have walked carelessly hitherto you must walk deliberately under the Spirit and let all your steps be ordered from above and you will be in time and on time. May you maximize your time this quarter and cover much ground as you move steadily towards the mark(s) of God for your life.
YOUR DAY IV
We must now press on to understand time and utilize it properly so as to gain maximally from this basic provision of God allotted equally to everyone.
We began to study time management and came to Psalm 90 where we saw Moses’ prayer in verse 12 – so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. We will yet pray that prayer, not just one more time but all the time. But we first want to understand the context of that prayer so that we can see the need and burden for it. (so at this point please read the whole of Psalm 90).
This Psalm was written, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, by Moses the Man of God who led Israel for 40 years and at last himself did not enter the promised land as ordained of God. He saw thousand of people squandered 40 years and their lives under the displeasure of God inspite of the provisions He made for their journey. It was what he witnessed in those 40 years that made him pen this prayer under the unction of the Holy Spirit, Now let us look at this testimony just a little.
Firstly, Moses makes a statement of fact: Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. God has no beginning and has no ending. Ever before He created the mountains He has been. So He has existed ever before the earth was created. By this opening statement it is like saying that man lived in God before he came into this world and at the end of his life he returns to God to decide where he will spend eternity. While man is very finite and limited God is infinite and unlimited. He could turn man back to the earth anytime He likes. While a thousand years to Him is just like a day, because He lives in eternity Moses reminded Him that seventy (70) years is all we have here and if a man is strong he could live up to eighty (80). Unfortunately man’s years on earth could be full of troubles and sorrow, especially if God is angry with him for sin and disobedience. Moses saw the people he led live under God’s anger, and even himself. So he asked the LORD rhetorically – who has felt the power of your anger? Who knows what fear your fury can bring?
Friend, God is very merciful and longsuffering but yet utterly righteous and even though is ready to forgive yet He can be very angry with one who continues to disobey Him and sin presumptuously. Men who do not fear God will fear His fury. When the LORD finally gets angry and stretches His rod over a life, that person can live in sorrow and pain and his/her time (life) can just fritter away. Moses saw this happen and went to the holy hill of prayer and begged the LORD, so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. So, indicates that since such can happen and a man can live under Divine anger and waste his time and life, there is need to gain wisdom to know how to number our days so that sin and the enemy do not make us to waste them.
So friend that is the background to that prayer. It is not good not to know where you are coming from and where you are going. It is not good not to know the purpose for which you are on earth. It is not good not to know that you have a time within which to live on earth and accomplish a certain purpose. Then it is crucial to know that you will not gain wisdom until you number your days well. Now wisdom here is the ability to know how to solve a problem. Life’s problems cannot be resolved without wisdom and it is only as you learn to number your days that you will gain this wisdom.
So you can see that many of us have no wisdom and understanding in this matter. The reason, for example, you get entangled in strife both at home and outside is because you do not have wisdom and do not know that any time you spend in strife will cost you much in all areas and waste your time and life. So a wise person, like Jesus did, will avoid strife even if he/she will lose goods and earthly things. Abraham’s life was almost squandered when he was locked up in strife with Lot until he was ready to give in to his much younger nephew no matter the cost. It was only after that he could hear and see God again and resumed his journey into the Divine purpose for his life. Friend, listen to this wisdom in Proverbs 22:3
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself:
But the simple pass on and are punished.
A wise person, especially when he is led of the Holy Spirit can smell and foresee evil and dodge it but a simpleton just goes on and enters trouble and suffers for it. As this simpleton keeps doing like this often, his life is going because he spends his time for resolving unnecessary issues and such like instead of using time to press on into God’s purpose for his life. So, we really need to pray for God to teach us to number and manage our time well so as to gain wisdom and stop being foolish and simpletons.
As I was wanting to pray this Ps 90:12 more deeply and looked at a few modern versions, I found some that are quite insightful:
Teach us to realize the brevity of life, So that we may grow in wisdom (NLT)
Teach us to use wisely all the time we have. (CEV)
Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely as well. (MSG)
It looks like the reason why those brethren failed in the wilderness was because they thought they knew. The word – teach – is common in all the verse and stems out of the fact that Moses saw that there was a need to be taught. When you do not know something you need to be taught. Friend, you need to be taught your mortality and the brevity of your life. Even if you are to live for a 100 years it is still a very short time compared to eternity. Then some part of that 100 years are years when you will not be able to do much except God gives you uncommon grace. So why not humble yourself and pray to Him who knows all to teach you. If He does not teach you, you will not be able to use wisely (mange well) all the time you have. You need to pray for God to teach you to live well. To play with sin and move with heedless steps is not to live well. To live well is to follow God and walk closely with Him in obedience to His Word. Enough of careless and carefree living and companying with those who cannot help you. Aim at a holy, peaceful and quiet life and trust the Lord to help you and bring you forward to the mark. Again, pray for Him to teach you to live wisely and not foolishly.
Friend, pray and pray and pray. Pray for God’s favour and blessing rather than His anger. Pray for peace at school, at home, at work and in every place and pray that the Lord will show you evil in advance so that you do not enter entanglements that will squander your time and life. Pray for good health and against decapacitating and debilitating diseases. Ask God for a good clean life and then for wisdom so that you will wisely use all the time you have. Pray that you will remain focused and move with purpose in every step so that you will reach God’s goal for your life with the life time He has apportioned to you.