Time is one of our most valuable assets. Unfortunately many people do not use their time well. Time can be seen as a bank account; what you put in, you get out. But unfortunately there is no savings section because time lost cannot be regained.
In today’s fast and frenzied world, everything is literally at our fingertips. We even use our fingertips to do much of our communication, like texting and typing on our iPad screens. If you need a recipe, no need to search through your books to find it, simply do a Google search. It is that easy and super-fast that it can be mind boggling to comprehend how much information is available on the Internet.
Having everything at your fingertips also has its perils. We are swamped with media which can often distract us into senseless activities. Time as a vital resource, needs to be strategically used or it will be wasted. Like the rising tide that washes away the sand castles children build on the sea shore, time erases things that are fruitlessly ventured into. Put simply, when we have nothing to show for our efforts, we have been robbed of our time.
The enemy of our soul is Satan. His prime goal, found in John 10:10, is to ‘steal, kill and destroy’. There is nothing good in his mission yet he has been very successful in accomplishing his purpose. Why is that so? He is regarded as the master of deception, the great deceiver. Revelation 12:9 calls Satan ‘the deceiver of the world’. Many things that are not good for us are camouflaged in ‘sugar-coated pills’. We try something out and it is good. We enjoy it so much that we go back for more and more. Little do we realise how much of our time it is consuming. Soon we cannot do without it and it starts to control the way we live.
People can become addicted to anything, not just drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or porn. Addiction takes all shapes and sizes and affects all ages. Children become addicted to television and games, pensioners become addicted to slot machines, teenagers become addicted to texting, families become hooked on reality TV and the list goes on and on. All these habits are time stealers. What do we have to show for it? Nothing!
John 10:10 (NIV) offers the solution, which says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Someone once said ‘what you do in life echoes into eternity’. If you want to live a fruitful life, invest in fruitful activities that live on even after you are gone. The best example is our Lord Jesus Christ. His life was invested in making a positive difference to others. When we invest our resources and talents into helping others, we are defeating Satan’s plans to steal from us. We are building a brighter future for ourselves and others. We are putting the enemy of our soul out of business and he doesn’t like that. When you know your enemy, you can see the weapons he is using to disarm and defeat you. So resist the habit to become a fool of Satan and don’t become a slave to his time consuming tactics. Live your life to the full, the way God intended it for you in the first place.
Linda Pearl
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