Single digits in the countdown to Christmas for an adult means everything seems to move faster, but for a child, the days creep by at a sloth’s pace, same as ever. There’s no real hurry and twenty-four hours lasts just as long as it always does, there’s just that sense of urgency that presses in from all sides like walls closing in on us. Things we want to last and places we want to linger are perched on the sharply slanting sides of an hourglass, one grain from falling away into the past. Try as we might to hold onto them, as the saying goes, time marches on.
“So be very careful how you live, not being like those with no understanding, but live honorably with true wisdom, for we are living in evil times.
Take full advantage of every day as you spend your life for his purposes.”
Ephesians 5:15-16 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/eph.5.15-16.TPT
Spending is on everyone’s mind this month as saving will be in the new year. An exchange must take place when spending occurs, one thing of value for another. If I use this hour to rest, hopefully I wake energized, but I cannot at the same time write a letter or wash the car. When I spend the cash in my wallet on lunch, I cannot spend the same cash again on dinner. We may delay the exchange by using credit, but eventually the debt must be paid. When something is spent, it is permanently exhausted. It is now in the possession of someone else to be exchanged at their discretion. To take full advantage of each moment, each resource, recognizing and making the most of every opportunity, and as the older Biblical translations render verse fifteen, to redeem the time, we must understand a system of valuation, as with hours and currency. We must learn God’s value scale.
Redemption is a business term, but it has come to be associated with salvation purchased for us by Jesus on the cross, the righteous for the unrighteous, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, to bring us to God. (I Peter 3:18) Salvation is by grace through faith, the free gift of God, not attainable by works so that no one may boast in God’s presence. (Ephesians 2:8-9) However, an exchange must still occur. We belonged to God, His own special creation, formed by the very hand of God from the dust of the earth He created, and woman from the rib of man. We were enticed away from our Creator by a thought for a bite of fruit. Separated from God, we hid, we ran, we toiled, we grasped at any way to regain what was lost to us, all to no avail. We are just as much haunted by regret as Adam and Eve.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.5.8.NIV
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”
Romans 5:6 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.5.6.NIV
“Here is a saying that you can trust. It should be accepted completely.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the worst sinner of all.”
1 Timothy 1:15 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/1ti.1.15.NIRV
Jesus is God redeeming us, buying back what was once His, settling the debt against us with His own blood once for all time. (Hebrews 10:10) Accepting His substitutionary sacrifice, believing in His name, means exchanging my life for His, my will for His.
“I have been crucified with Christ. I don’t live any longer, but Christ lives in me.
Now I live my life in my body by faith in the Son of God. He loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/gal.2.20.NIRV
“When anyone lives in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone! The new is here!”
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/2co.5.17.NIRV
“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Luke 9:23 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.9.23.NIV
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.10.NIV
Make the most of every moment. Take full advantage of every day as you spend your life for His purposes. Don’t forfeit the joy of walking with Him now, abiding in Him, plumbing the depths of His Word and His great Love, living out of the overflow of His Spirit.
The thief on the cross lived his final breaths in Christ. (Luke 23:42-43) He closed his eyes in this world certain of eternity in paradise because God is generous beyond measure. He made the exchange at the last possible moment. Many live as if this is a viable option- living for self today while planning to surrender to God with their dying breath- but we have no promise of tomorrow. Don’t gamble with your eternity by presuming on God’s goodness.
“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Psalms 139:16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.139.16.NLT
“God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done.
As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out.
This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you.
He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.”
2 Corinthians 9:8-11 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/2co.9.8-11.MSG
“I pray that he will use his glorious riches to make you strong.
May his Holy Spirit give you his power deep down inside you. Then Christ will live in your hearts because you believe in him.
And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation.
May you have power together with all the Lord’s holy people to understand Christ’s love. May you know how wide and long and high and deep it is. And may you know his love, even though it can’t be known completely.
Then you will be filled with everything God has for you.
God is able to do far more than we could ever ask for or imagine. He does everything by his power that is working in us.
Give him glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. Give him glory through all time and for ever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:16-21 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/eph.3.16-21.NIRV
In eternity, there’s plenty of time!
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun”
~John Newton, 1779
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