Come now you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”-yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring: What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
We’ve talked about making time which is something we really can’t do. We can only live in the time we have been given. We talked about the importance of what we do in our given time. As our Scripture passage says, we often make plans or plan on doing something and God changes those plans. We never know what tomorrow will bring, only God knows that.
Most importantly, none of us know how much time we have here on earth to get it right. When we are young, especially in our teen years, we want to be older. Time seems to stand still because we want to drive, we want to graduate, we want to go to college, we want to grow up and be on our own. We believe we will live forever. We think we know it all.
But if we are blessed to have more time here on earth as we make it into our mid to late twenties, we may realize that this whole grown-up thing is overrated. But one thing we never know is how much time we have left. Only God knows that.
So, with that being said, this is why it is so important to make the best use of every minute of every day. What if you plan to one day surrender your life to God and that one day never gets here? What if you plan to go to church next week but you don’t make it into next week? What if you plan to start praying and reading your Bible for your New Year’s resolution, but you don’t make it through the holiday season?
It’s good to plan. We should plan. We should budget and do all those grown-up things that aren’t so fun to do. But none of us know if we will ever see our plans through because we don’t know if we will be here to do that. It is only by God’s will we draw our next breath.
This is why the time is now. Now is the time to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Now is the time to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). Now is the time to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44). Now is the time to forgive those who have offended you so that you too may be forgiven (Matthew 6:14). Don’t put Jesus off. Don’t wait another minute to confess your sins to Him, repent and be forgiven. Don’t wait to accept the forgiveness and mercy He freely gives. Don’t wait to surrender your life to Him and accept Him as your Lord and Savior. The time to surrender your life to Christ is right now before it is everlasting too late.
My friend when the time is up, it will be too late. We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:7-8, “For we walk by faith, not by sight, and we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord.” Once our bodies die here on earth, we will be present with the Lord. At that time, it will be too late to get it right. We want to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21) Sadly Jesus said in Matthew 7:23 that on that day many will cry out to Him and He will say to them, “Depart from Me, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity.” Jesus tells us if we deny Him before men, He will deny us before His father in heaven in Matthew 10:33.
The time to accept Christ is now because none of us know when we will die or when the rapture will occur, but what we do know is when this happens it will be too late. Our time will be up.
Trust in God today, give your life over to Him because only He knows what your future holds. Only He knows how much time you have left. Use it wisely. Praise, honor and serve Him before it’s too late.
Have a great day!