– Joseph Rozario (Bangalore, India)
In my previous article (RETURNING TO GOD’ ORIGINAL PURPOSE II), I talked about “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it”.- Ps.118;24. Every morning when I get up, there is a reason for rejoicing and being glad in it. I want that reason to govern all my activities for the day. God is supremely and sovereignly committed and focused on making my day a successful and fruitful one. That is the primary reason why He gives me another day. Behind all the ‘seen’ temporal activities which go on in our lives, we need to perceive the invisible eternal agenda of God’s purpose for our lives. We have been seeing, in the past, several aspects of God’s original plan for our lives.
In my understanding, to arrive at our destiny, God gives us His GRACE and TIME. His grace and time have such immense potential. They need to be used sparingly and wisely, like you invest your currency. With regard to GRACE, Paul says, “I did not frustrate the grace of God… “(Gal.2:21). The common factor of these precious commodities is, they are available only as long as we are alive now and not after this life. And the one differential factor is, TIME can never be gotten back, while God’s GRACE is available every morning (though there is no guarantee of lost opportunities).
Regarding TIME Paul says, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil….understanding what the will of the Lord is” – Eph.5:16 & 17. His exhortation is, do not squander away your time on what is not God’s will. Because there are too many temptations and distractions these days, we need God’s wisdom to understand what His real will is and to invest our time accordingly. Every human has been given the same amount of time every day, without any discrimination: whether a prince or pauper, rich or poor, educated or illiterate, black or white, sinner or saint, so on and so forth. A man of God said, what you become in life depends upon how and with whom you spend your time. How true it is! As we progress into maturity, our friends’ circle becomes smaller; a red light flashes when we are found to be in the wrong company. When the TV begins to control us, there is an uncomfortable feeling. There is a gentle nudging in our spirits when useless pursuits come to invade our time. When we have done nothing but drifted through the day, even if we have not sinned (this has happened in my life quite a few times, sadly), there is a sense of guilt and regret as if you have put your money in a bag full of holes. Also, remember that old saying, be careful what you become while pursuing what you want! May the Holy Spirit open our eyes of understanding to see the value of the most invaluable commodity called TIME to achieve the calling resting on our lives.
Along with time, God’s amazing GRACE has also been given for us to arrive at God’s ultimate purpose for our lives. Paul takes the first 3 full chapters of Ephesians to describe this abundant grace or God’ provision; and unable to do full justice concludes “..He is able to do exceeding abundantly more than what we ask or think…” Eph.3:20. The question is, what do we ask or think? What is our daily supplication? Someone rightly said, we are called to be as trophies of God’s grace. Has anyone been able to describe adequately what is the length, the breadth, the height and the depth of His unfathomable grace that is made available to us to run this race? Oh, that we may be found every morning kneeling before His mercy seat to obtain His mercy and grace (Heb.4:16)!
Having been given these most precious commodities called TIME & GRACE and God being on our side, what are the areas in which we need to apply them? There are three specific areas I apply in my daily life. They all are to do with the essence of ‘the Lord’s Prayer,’ that my Father & King’s name be hallowed, His kingdom come and His will be done, as in heaven so on this earth.
- Every day I wish to utilize time and grace that I may be conformed to the image of His Son.
- Every day I wish to utilize time and grace to be an express representative of His kingdom on this earth now.
- Every day I wish to live not only in the consciousness that there is the kingdom of darkness around me, but also, that I need to be an instrument to destroy such works.
“But thus thou shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, break down their images….”– Deut.7:5.
May the Lord help us to utilize His grace and the time that He has given to us every day to progress in this call. Because, this is the day that the Lord has made!
