What do you do with your time?

Time. The most valuable asset we have everyday. We are accountable for our time more than money and any riches. What do we do with our 24-hours everyday? We sleep 8 hours, work/school/college 8 hours and what do we do with the other 8 hours? On that great final day we will all be accountable for our time…

Whatever is occupying the most of our time is what we live for. What a job the devil has done to make us so busy and be occupied with the number of addictive entertainment activities, work and business of everyday life. No time for family, no time to think about the wickedness that is happening all around us and above all we have no time for God and for the things that matter for eternity.

God has taught me to see the wickedness of this world’s entertainment and I have had no interest in any. In many of our lives, it’s not the useless entertainment that has taken over our time, but our work and ambitions in this life.

Work – all of us need it to survive in this world. Even the Bible says that we shall not eat unless we work.

The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.

– 2 Thessalonians 3:10

But what is it when it takes over all your time, day and night, occupies all your thoughts? Surely that is not how God wants anyone to be.

I too have to humble myself and admit that I had gotten myself into bondage where everything that occupied me was my work, the number of positions I held. God had blessed my youth with amazing opportunities. Most of it in such a small space of time.

I am greatly thankful for the blessings God has showered upon me. However, even the greatest of God’s blessings can take us away from Him who has provided them. I do not want my life revolving around my work and the riches of this world. Nothing must have supremacy above my God. I regret to see how I have managed to get myself into this bondage, have allowed it to rule my life, put me in such tremendous stress and pressure and how it has taken over all my time.

It’s time to quit. It is a sacrifice; and it comes at a big cost. But no matter my loss, the business relationships and positions I will lose; I will not let anything in this world rule my life. It is not easy. Dropped my first multinational, multilingual and largest client’s projects midway of all the work. All the time and work done so far is in vain. Forfeited my highest position so far as a CTO and shares in a potentially huge international insurance industry startup. Detaching myself from all other client work and ties. Not only have I wasted my time but also of others. To quit and exit out of these was not simple, but it is a cost and sacrifice that I am willing to make wholeheartedly and face whatever the consequences. For I know that my God will strengthen me and take care of all my needs.

I have learnt my lesson the hard way and I thank God for the stress and pressure he had put me under to teach me what I had to learn. Not only will I be careful to watch my time and be careful what I step into but I have learnt so many other lessons that otherwise I would have never learnt.

What is my life? I am thankful and contempt with God’s blessing so far in my life and I know that I have deserved none of it. My life is not for this world. I do not wish to waste my life pursuing the riches of this world.

When I look back over the last few months, God had made so many opportunities to reach out to the friends around me with the gospel and to bring them closer to Him. From collectively starting a prayer group to leading a youth group. I had desired and longed for God’s time to make these work. I had desired to do more than these for my spiritual growth to be more Christ-like and to impact my world of friends and peers with the gospel. This mean a whole lot more to me than any other thing in this world. More than my education, college and work. My entire time and thoughts must be dictated and ruled by what matters for eternity.

On that great final day, I do not wish to stand before my God, my judge and give an account for the opportunities God has provided and I occupied myself with selfish earthly desires. I wish to stand before my God with the confidence that I have emptied myself of this world and its thoughts and care for what will perish with this world. I wish to stand with the confidence on that great day that I have given priority for what is eternal…

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

– Psalms 139:23-24 (NIV)

But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.

– John 6:27 (NLT)

But you know if God should stamp eternity or even judgment on our eyeballs, or if you’d like on the fleshy table of our hearts I am quite convinced we’d be a very, very different tribe of people, God’s people, in the world today. We live too much in time, we’re too earth bound. We see as other men see, we think as other men think. We invest our time as the world invests it. We’re supposed to be a different breed of people. I believe that the church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the majesty of God. We’re all going to stand one day, can you imagine it- at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in the body. This is what- this is the King of kings, and He’s the Judge of judges, and it’s the Tribunal of tribunals, and there’s no court of appeal after it. The verdict is final.

– Leonard Ravenhill