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“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).
Don’t waste the precious time God has given you (Ecc. 12:1). Using one’s time wisely is an important part of spiritual victory and fruitfulness.
The book of Proverbs warns frequently about being a sluggard (Prov. 6:6-11). We deal with this in the Way of Life Literature Advanced Bible Studies Series course on Proverbs.
Consider some of the greatest time wasters today:
Video games. We have looked at the danger of video games, but here we consider its role in wasting time. The average gamer spends eight hours per week playing video games. This equates to 416 hours per year. Last year, a teen told me he wanted to learn to study the Bible on his phone, but when I asked to look at his phone, I found that it was filled with games. I challenged him to get rid of them and to spend that time on Bible study and other profitable things. I told him that until he was willing to put aside wasteful things, he wouldn’t make much progress in his spiritual life. One young Christian lady we know became concerned about how much time she was spending on video games, and she decided to figure it up. She concluded that she was spending three months out of a year playing games! She deleted the games from her iPad and is spending that time memorizing Scripture and other profitable things.
Vain talk (Prov. 14:23)
Day dreaming
Romance novels
Science fiction
Sports (1 Tim. 4:8). In the 1990s I became devoted to following professional baseball, and I regret the many hours that I wasted on that empty pursuit before I woke up to what was happening.
To redeem the time we must learn how to set priorities.
A major priority is Bible study and prayer. The young person must not allow anything to interfere with his devotional life. Not only must he give time to it, but he must give also his attention to it. If something is crowding out the Word of God and making it impossible to meditate, that thing should be put out of one’s life (Mk. 4:19).
Another priority is to be faithful to the assemblies (Heb. 10:25). As a new believer at age 23, I determined that I would never take a job that would keep me out of church, and the Lord always provided jobs that didn’t interfere with the Lord’s service.
Nothing must be allowed to hinder my Christian life and the will of God. Multitudes of young people have backslidden and gotten out of God’s will because of secular education and jobs, as we have already noted.
To redeem the time we must learn to fill our lives with wholesome and eternally profitable things. God has filled even this fallen world with such things for those who are wise enough to chose excellent things above empty things. We have already dealt with this. A few examples of profitable things are Bible study, evangelism, music, church ministries, good literature, wholesome documentaries, photography, creation science, geology, history, and physical exercise.
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