THE STEWARDSHIP OF TIME
By George W. Sinquefield
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By George W. Sinquefield
Psa. 90:9 through Psa. 90:12 (KJV)
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. 10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. 12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Do you know the derivation of the word "steward?" We use it all the time in church. We talk about stewardship of time, talent, and treasure. We talk about trying to be good stewards of God's good earth. But originally the word "steward" meant "ward of the sty," a keeper of pigs. It was someone who kept property, pigs in this instance, for another. In this sense we are all keepers of property for someone else, for God. Sometimes an offertory prayer is said: "We give The but Thine own; whate'er the gift may be; all that we have is Thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from Thee."
Time is God's gift to man. Each of us is given 24 hours in each day. 1440 minutes and 86,400 seconds. John S. McMullen says, "Our life is intrusted to us by God, twenty four hours of life every day. God trusts us to use these hours in the way most useful to Him and therefore most meaningful and joyous to us. The stewardship of time is our responsible use of all twenty four hours of the day."
I. Time Is So Precious
President Eliot of Harvard said, "God entrusts us with nothing more valuable than time. Without it money is valueless and the stewardship of money is meaningless." An Irish proverb puts it, "Time is so precious that it is dealt out to us only in the smallest possible fraction, a tiny moment at a time."
Nothing is so dear and precious as time. Dr. Guffin, who was professor of Howard College, now Samford University said, "Indeed, few things are as precious as time and little or nothing has value in this world apart from time."
Rice -- "Time, like diamonds is precious because of its scarcity. Time is in some sense the most valuable thing in the world. A man may be a multi millionaire but he still has only twenty four hours a day."
Thomas A. Edison -- "Time is the most important thing in the world."
II. Time Is Swiftly Passing By.
Shakespeare -- "The inaudible and noiseless foot of time treads relentlessly on. Come what may time and the hour runs through the roughest day."
The Bible reminds us that our days are few.
1 Cor. 7:29 (KJV)
The Bible pictures the length of man's life as:
1. Grass
Psa. 103:15 through Psa. 103:16 (KJV)
2. A shadow
1 Chr. 29:15 (KJV)
Psa. 144:4 (KJV)
A man has about 600,000 hours of life at his disposal if he lives to be 65 years of age. Since the average individual is 18 before completing high school, that leaves him 47 years, or nearly 412,000 hours to live after graduation.
If we spend 8 hours a day sleeping, 8 hours for personal, social, and recreational activities, and 8 hours for working, that amounts to 137,333 hours in each category. When you think of the time we have to work and play in terms of hours, it doesn't seem like much. And when seen in the light of eternity, it's but a fleeting moment. How improtant, therefore, that we spend our waking hours wisely!
May our prayer be that of the Psalmist found in Psalm 90:12.
Psa. 90:12 (KJV)
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
III. Time Is To Be Redeemed.
"So be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don't be fools; be wise; make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to find out and do whatever the Lord wants you to." (The Living Bible)
The way a person uses his time determines, in the sight of God, whether he is wise or a fool.
Now let us look at this Scripture from the King James Version.
Eph. 5:15 through Eph. 5:16 (KJV)
"Walk" refers to the way one lives and "circumspectly" means looking all around, giving attention to all circumstances as one might do when passing through a dangerous place. The idea is the Christian is to live in conformity to a high standard, ever guarding against anything that would be improper for him to have part in. "Redeem" is a market term which means t"to buy out," "to purchase." "Time" is translation of a Greek word which came to mean opportunity. To redeem the time means to buy out the opportunity to make the most of the time we have -- to use it in the best way possible.
We all know that opportunities for service for God and man are brief seasons that soon slip away -- never to return. The wise Christian is urged to seize these opportunities and use them while he can.
Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
Benjamin Franklin -- "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. We cannot create a moment, we cannot borrow a moment, we cannot destroy a moment, but we may use, misuse, or waste time."
Ramsey McDonald said, "More men have wrecked their lives by being careless of time than by being careless of money. The odd moment is the most precious opportunity of life."
Horace Mann wrote, "Lost somewhere between sunrise and sunset two golden hours, each set with 60 diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever. The proper use of our time is one of the greatest challenges we face today. Work while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work."
Dillard in "Good Stewards" -- "We Americans are the greatest wasters in the world. Others could live on what we throw away. And the greatest waste is not in mere physical things but in wasted time, wasted talents and wasted lives."
The prodigal son "wasted" his money, health, etc but most of all he wasted his time.
The French proverb, "All the treasures of earth cannot buy back one lost moment." Queen Elizabeth's last words are said to have been, "All my possessions for a moment of time."
Andrew Carnegie is reported to have said just before his death, "I would give two hundred million dollars for ten years more of life."
Arnold Bennett in his book, "How To Live On Twenty-Four Hours A Day" reminds us of the value and use of time "As the days go fleeting by." Of time he says, "It is the inexplicable raw material of everything, with it all is possible, without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning and lo, your purse is magically filled with 24 hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of you life. It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. You have to live on this 24 hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect and the evaluation of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that."
IV. "I Don't Have The Time."
So often we hear this. The truth remains that each of us has as much time as anyone else. The difference lies in what use we make of it.
The poem puts it like this:
29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
15 For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Rice -- "A man may give away money without affecting his life a particle. Some men can give away a million dollars and have just as much to eat, just as many fine clothes, just as nice a car. But no one can give time without giving of his very life and altering his plans. Everyone who gives time gives up other things he would do in that time, so God demands of His people that they take time to serve Him."
"Time is a tool of God. It becomes a magic wand in the process of nature, turning bodies into dust, events into memories, and accomplishments into fame. Time is a gift of God giving us opportunity to live, to laugh, to love; to sow and to reapl. Time is an equal commodity. We can't borrow it. We can't work harder and earn more of it. We can't hord it. All we can do is spend it. And we do well to remember 'It is time to seek the Lord'"(Hosea 10:12). -- Dean Goodson
Yes, it is time that Christian people seek God's will, and having learned what it is -- do it. Do it while we have the time.
James 4:13 through James 4:17 (KJV)
It is high time that the lost seek the Savior. The Bible reminds us that "Today is the day of salvation." Lost friend, you may not have another day. In fact you are not promised another hour. Take care of this all important matter now. Accept Jesus as your Savior and do it without delay.
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
