As for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand.
—Psalm 31:14–15
Benjamin Franklin once asked, “Dost thou love life? If so, do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
As I have listened to people talk about their regrets over the years, I have noticed how often regrets have to do with our time. People have regrets about too much time spent at work, time spent in an unfulfilling relationship, time spent watching television, not enough time spent with their children, and so on. I think one reason we sometimes regret issues related to our time is the fact that time is a priceless and irreplaceable commodity.
We talk about making time, borrowing time, or saving time, but really none of those things is possible. Every one of us, from the president of the United States to the street cleaner, gets the same amount of time every day. We all get twenty-four hours in a day. And it is impossible to say, “Well, I only needed twenty-three hours today. So I think I’ll save an hour and add it on to tomorrow.” Time doesn’t work that way, does it?
If we want to live without regrets, we need to be wise about the time we have been given on earth. The psalmist said, “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should” (Psalm 90:12 TLB). I’ll never forget the first time I heard that verse. I was at Baylor University, sitting in freshmen orientation, and my girlfriend, who later became my wife, Amy, was a hundred miles away at the University of Texas. It was the first time we had ever been separated. We had spent four years dating in high school and now we were going to be separated for two whole weeks. I remember the chapel speaker quoting this verse. Well, I was certainly numbering the days until I got to see Amy! But that next portion—“and recognize how few they are”—I didn’t quite grasp. As an eighteen-year-old, that phrase made no sense to me. How few they are? It seemed like an endless amount of time until I was going to see Amy again. Those days stretched on like they would last forever. However, forty-five years later, my perspective has changed, and I bet yours has as well. Have you noticed how quickly time passes? Time is very, very limited.
Do you have any regrets about how you are spending the time that God has given you? This week, you will learn about how to live your life without any regrets regarding your time.
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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Living without Time Regrets” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2009.
Scripture 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.