Live Wisely

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Ephesians‬ ‭5:15-16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

You cannot manage time because time moves on its own without your permission. It does not follow your orders. It is sovereign, whether you like it or not. Therefore, you can only manage your life, or how you live, in order to make the most of every opportunity. The days are evil, Paul says. You and I have to be wise. That is the choice we must make each and every moment. How do we do this?

First of all, we need to recognize that our life belongs to God. He owns it, not us. So we need to honor Him with the way we live. If we waste it, we also waste the opportunity to glorify Him. Our life is basically the choice we make each day in relation to where we will put our energy. We are finite beings with finite energy. So we cannot live as if this is not true. We have to respect the laws of nature. Every living thing has a rhythm: stress and rest. We cannot do one and then neglect the other. Both must be balanced. We cannot have stress, whether good or bad, without taking the time to rest. In the same way, we cannot rest all the time and not have stress, whether good or bad. Life must have its right balance all the time, so that we can expend energy and recover it on a regular basis. The key is to have the available energy whenever we most need it, i.e. when we need to engage in key relationships in our lives. Our key relationships are first with God, then with the lost, then with God’s family, the church, and then with our own family. We must have enough energy for each of these key relationships. They are all vital. The only way to do this is to live wisely and not wastefully. Shalom! (PB)