Use Your Extra Minutes Wisely

“Making good use of the time, because the days are evil” (BBE) Ephesians 5:16. 

The writer communicated a sense of urgency in the use time because evil was pervasive. The Christians needed to use their limited time wisely.  

On Wednesday 23 November 2011, during my necessary but very infrequent walk in Emancipation Park, I noticed the lady in front of me walking fast but in a zigzag manner.  Getting closer I realized that she was dialing a number. On passing her I overheard her saying: “Sit down and let me talk to you. I need to finish my extra minutes”.  I smiled to myself and said, “Wow! At 5:30 a.m. she is calling someone to use up her extra minutes”. As I walked along it dawned on me that I have some extra minutes. Thereafter I was absorbed with thoughts of how I could “finish my extra minutes”.  

How she had obtained the extra minutes was unimportant. I was arrested by the fact that she was determined to make the best use of them. She was walking but she wanted the person to sit. She did not give away her extra minutes. She could have waited until she returned home but my suspicion is that she would have lost those extra minutes.

What about you? Do you have some extra minutes to finish? Today is the first day in the rest of your life. We never know how many extra minutes we have. What is important is to begin using those extra minutes. I believe there is an urgency to employ every moment and opportunity to reach someone for Christ. We have a mandate to make disciples of all nations and we do not have the luxury of time because no one knows the day or the hour when the Son of man will come.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it”.  Are you using your extra time wisely?  Let us join Charles Wesley and say?

Lord, in the strength of grace,
With a glad heart and free,
Myself, my residue of days,
I consecrate to Thee.

Thy ransomed servant, I
Restore to Thee Thy own;
And, from this moment, live or die
To serve my God alone.

THOUGHT:                Thank God for the extra time.

PRAYER FOCUS:  For wisdom to use time wisely.