Trusting God with our time means making good use of the time He has given us. It sounds simple, but it is not. Ephesians 5:15-16 states: “So be careful how you live. "Do not live as fools, but as wise, making the most of every opportune moment , because the days are evil." The Updated King James Version translates “making the most of every opportune moment” as “redeeming time.” We are commanded to redeem time, to recover or rescue our time from useless occupations and use it for the glory of God. But how can we do it? I would like to suggest three ways to you.
1. Free yourself from the past
Redeeming time requires that the past stays in the past. We can hold on to the past by indulging in two different emotions: sinful nostalgia or remorse. Sinful nostalgia leads us to idolize times when life was “better” or “simpler,” resulting in dissatisfaction with our present circumstances. We may long for the times we lived before certain bad news arrived or when our health was better. We may want to go back to the days when our children lived at home or when a loved one was still alive. The change of seasons in life can cause a natural longing for the way things used to be, and while it is not necessarily sinful, it can be. We are allowed to grieve when happy seasons end, but not to resent their loss. There is a difference between missing the past and coveting it. The antidote to greed is always gratitude: we can fight a sinful love for the past by counting the blessings we enjoy in the present.
____________
“ The antidote to greed is always gratitude: we can fight a sinful love for the past by counting the blessings we enjoy in the present. ”
___________
Remorse, on the other hand, leads us to live focused on past mistakes and afflictions, which robs us of the joy of our present circumstances and often causes us to return to certain sinful patterns. As a child I learned to sing the words of Charles Wesley: “Break the chains of sin, the prisoner shall be free.” How many times have I needed those words as a reminder that the power of my past sins (or the past sins of others against me) has been nullified in the name of Jesus. He replaces my history of sin with His holiness. When I become discouraged because I have fallen back into some past sin, the “who lifts up my head” reminds me that, although I am not yet what I will be, I am not what I was. He takes me out of the past and brings me to the present with the assurance that today He continues to sanctify me little by little. It keeps me from focusing on past hurts by reminding me that I must forgive, just as I have been forgiven. We can fight the “bad news” of the past by remembering and trusting in the good news of the gospel.
2. Free yourself from the future
Redeeming time requires that the future stay in the future. We cling to the future when we indulge two distinct emotions: sinful anticipation and anxiety. We allow sinful anticipation by always coveting the next stage of life. The teenager wants to be a college student. The young mother can't wait for her children to stop wearing diapers. The businesswoman can't wait to retire. Longing for the future is not bad in itself. Seeing a future stage of life as an escape from the present is. As in the case of sinful nostalgia, sinful anticipation is suppressed with gratitude for the blessings we enjoy in the present.
We feed anxiety when we live in fear of the future. We fear uncertainty or possibilities: the loss of a job, a possible illness, or simply not knowing (or being unable to control) what tomorrow holds. Our prayers are characterized more by the desire to know the future than by the desire to live the present for the Lord. Jesus reminds us not to be anxious about the future, “for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Each day has enough with its own evil!” (Mt 6:34 RVC). The antidote to anxiety is to remember and confess that the future is safe in God's hands. This does not mean that we do not prepare for the future, but we must do so out of caution and not fear.
3. Live fully in the present
Redeeming time requires being completely present in the present. We waste our today when we feed two different sins: laziness or always being busy. Both the lazy and the always busy subtly reject the God who ordained the limits of time. The lazy person believes that there will always be more time to take care of her responsibilities. Today you can do whatever you want. It is characterized by procrastinating, missing deadlines, and making excuses. Like someone who wastes money, the lazy person wastes time without considering the cost, believing that she has an unlimited credit of hours. The lazy person does not believe that the time that God has given is valuable. But He calls us to redeem the present, to be diligent like the ant, which stores up when it is time to store up (Prov 6:6).
“ Both the lazy one and the one who is always
busy subtly reject the God who ordained
the limits of time. ”
___________
The person who is always busy believes that there will never be enough time to handle his or her many responsibilities. You also believe you can do whatever you want with your time, filling your days with activities and complaining that there are no more hours in the day. It is characterized by exhaustion and excess obligations. Like a miser, she squeezes every bit of productivity out of every minute of the day, believing that rest is for when we die. The one who is always busy believes that the time God has given is not enough. We must redeem the present by leaving time for the practice of stillness and for keeping the Sabbath. These disciplines will help us remain confident at the feet of our Lord.
When we work to redeem time, we reflect our Creator. God is the ultimate example of this: He redeems all the time, and redeems at the right time. We are called to redeem the years He has given us as part of our worship of Him.
_________________________
This article was adapted from a portion of the book Nadie como Él , published by Poiema Publicaciones . You can download a free sample by visiting this link.
_________________________
Page 70
