Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:5-6
In the book of Colossians, Paul tells us about using our time wisely. He first begins by telling us that we should be committed to prayer, being watchful and thankful. When we pray, we remain in communion with the Lord, and we give Him the opportunity to share His thoughts with us. When we are watchful, we pay attention to things from heavenly perspective, and it takes away the chance of whining and complaining about things. When we are thankful, it keeps us in a place of peace and joy, so we won’t have to waste our time living in carnality. Prayer and being watchful and thankful are foundational to our spiritual lives, and disciplining ourselves to live this way allows us to steward our time according to His plan.
Paul goes on further and tells us that we need to show wisdom in the way we live because the world is watching us. There is no time to lose, and there is no time to wait. As we walk in the spirit, there is a practical side of life that we need to pay attention as well. We cannot use all our time in prayer and worship but neglect our families, jobs, ministries, or the lost. God expects us to be supernatural people. On this spiritual journey, we maintain the practicality of living a life in the natural. We don’t wait for a better time to take care of our natural obligations. To the contrary, we have the anointing of God as supernatural beings to do all things with His peace, grace, and direction.
In reality, as God’s people, we should do life better because God is with us. He will give us everything we need to do well. In addition, our focus and goal is to honor God with our time and our lives. Therefore, we are set for great success with God’s help.
How do we make the most of every opportunity? This is not just about ceasing the moment to share Christ with others, but it is also about reflecting Christ and showing wisdom in our practical lives. For example, if we tell our coworkers about Jesus, but then we can’t meet work deadlines, it is not a good testimony of our faith in the Lord. Or we may make dinner/lunch plans with others, but most of the time, we have an excuse why we arrive late. That makes us lose credibility before those whom we are trying to reach.
Procrastination is a lost opportunity. It shows that we had the time to do something but we chose not by presuming upon the future. Generally, I don’t like to procrastinate. I see it like getting into debt. When we are in debt we presume upon the future for the income to payoff what we bought today. Procrastination is about presuming on the future that we will have the time to get it done.
The Lord expects us to be consistent and faithful people and that means that we should make the most of every opportunity. If we wait until the last minute to get something done, we have wasted valuable time in the process. In addition, we may not have the opportunity to get it done or to do a good job completing it.
Our lives, talents, and time don’t belong to us, and we are called to steward them as unto the Lord and make the most of every opportunity. When we live with God’s rhythm, we experience greater peace and joy in doing our work, and we also eliminate the possibility of others being frustrated with us because we are late in getting things done. In this way, we love God and we love our neighbor as ourselves!
