…making the most of every opportunity… Ephesians 5:16b

 

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, and your bank carried over no balance from day to day, but allowed you to keep whatever cash you could spend, and each evening canceled out whatever amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Naturally, you would draw out every last dollar. Of course! Actually, you do have such a bank and its name is “time.” Every morning it credits your account with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules as lost whatever of this you have failed to invest.

 

The bank of time carries over no balance from one day to the next, and allows no overdrafts. If you fail to use the day’s deposit, the loss is yours. There is no going back, no drawing against tomorrow. Is it any wonder that the Greek philosopher Theophrastus cried, “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” Yet, so often the day is past and we have failed miserably to use it well. There are lots of inequalities in life–no two people are born with equal opportunities for success. However, every man is equal when it comes to having only 60 minutes in every hour–no more and no less. Most of the time the problem is not that we do not have enough time. Chances are that we fail to use wisely the time that we have.

 

Many years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote to a group of believers in the ancient city of Ephesus. He gave them some sound advice when he wrote, “…making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). Actually, he is saying, “Take advantage of the time you have because the days are evil and time is short.” Life at its longest is short, so if you are serious about utilizing your time to the best advantage, you had better make up your mind that you are going to do something, and do it now.

 

The first guideline in using your time wisely is to remember that today is the most important day of your life. If you live in the past, there is no hope for the future; if you live in the future, there is no hope for today. Tomorrow may never come, the past is a matter of record, but today lies in your grasp. If you would use today wisely, you must remember that time doesn’t slip through your hand an hour at a time. It trickles through your fingers a second at a time. Make up your mind that every second is important. A few minutes here and there add up to hours. If you are going to take advantage of those few minutes here and there, you will have to work at it.

 

The inventor Thomas Edison took advantage of those few precious moments he had in between selling papers on a railroad car. He set up a laboratory in the baggage car. In between peddling newspapers and sandwiches, he conducted his experiments.

William Feather gave some sound advice when he wrote, “Too many of us wait to do the perfect thing with the result that we do nothing.” The way to get ahead is to start now. While many of us are waiting until the conditions are “just right” before we go ahead, others are stumbling forward. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you do not know now, and that you will still not know next year if you wait.

Resource reading: Psalm 90:1-17