It’s Time To Go To Work

Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
–Ephesians 5:14

In Romans 13, Paul said because Christ is about to appear, it is time to get up, and it is time to get dressed. Finally, he said, it is time to go to work.

I heard about a person who said, “I sleep fine at night, I sleep fine in the morning, I just toss and turn all afternoon.” A lot of Christians are like that spiritually. They are in a spiritual stupor. They walk around spiritually asleep. Paul addresses this in Ephesians 5:14-16: “‘Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” Understand what time it is. It is time to get busy, because the day of Christ’s appearing is just about here.

It is time to lay aside the sinful behavior that causes you to feel separated from God. It is time to let go of the addictions that are destroying your life. It is time to end the relationship that is dragging you so far down. It is time to start having a quiet time with God every day–a time that is going to be the priority for you for the rest of your life. It is time to start using the spiritual gift God has given you to do the one thing He has left you here on earth to do: to make disciples of Christ. It is time to go to work.

I have that sense more right now than I have ever had in my life. I think something big is getting ready to happen. I don’t know if that something big is my own mortality or whether the Lord is about to return. I don’t know if it is the fact that we are not going to have the opportunities we have right now as Christians much longer. But whatever reason it is, it is time to go to work.

Jonathan Edwards was a remarkable man. He resolved “never to lose one moment of time but to improve it in the most profitable way I can.” Edwards once preached a sermon called “The Preciousness Of Time And The Importance Of Redeeming It.” Using this passage in Ephesians 5, he came up with three principles about time. Number one: Consider you are accountable to God for your time. One day, when you and I stand before the judgment seat of Christ for God to evaluate our lives, we are going to give an account of everything He has entrusted to us, including the time that He has given to us. Number two: Consider how much time you have already lost. Spend some time thinking about the time you have wasted in your life. And number three: Consider how you may improve the present time without delay.

You can never reclaim the time that you have lost. It is gone forever. But you can make changes in your life right now to maximize the time you have left. It is time to wake up. It is time to get dressed. And it is time to go to work, because Christ’s appearing is nearer than it has ever been.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “It’s Later Than You Think” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2014.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.