Never Waste Time.

 Time spent with God is never wasted time- never.  

Wasted time, what exactly do we mean by wasting time? Usually if we're between planned events and there is a period of unplanned time we might call that- wasting time. It's been said to be wasted because the time is there, but unoccupied with a purposeful planned action. Whether of work, or relaxation, we like to have our time purposeful for it to have meaning to us. If I choose to sit around for an entire day with a hobby (no matter what the hobby) as long as it's my choice and I've planned to do that thing- I haven't wasted a bit of time. It doesn't matter if anyone else thinks my hobby spent time is purposeful, it matters what I think. It is very easy for us to point a finger at others and accuse them of wasting time. What we're really saying is they are using their time for things we don't think are purposeful enough, and you know what? It's none of our business.

When we don't get satisfaction from a purposeful action we often consider our time wasted- even though we planned that time. When we're forced to use our time for things we have no control over- waiting in a doctor's office, in a long line, at really long stop lights and so on and so forth, when this happens we get especially exasperated because that time was taken from us and it was out of our control. Very few people choose extra-long lines, or extremely long waiting times unless they have things to occupy that time, and they aren't in any particular hurry- therefore it's not 'completely' wasted. When we can fill unexpected, or even expected periods of time when we are doing things we don't want to do, with things we do want- that time may still be considered wasted time, just not as awful as time wasted without ANY redeeming features at all. 

Right now you could consider reading this a waste of your time- you could have spent that time in a more satisfying way. In the future I may think that I wasted my time writing this. Time is something precious to us because we really do have limited time. I've heard it said, and said it myself, 'Life is too short to waste time doing things I don't want to do.'  Yet, we do a lot of things we don't really want to do, but we do them because not to do them would result in a very chaotic existence. 

I take time to wash the dishes because NOT to wash them would make life very difficult- eventually I'd run out of dishes, not to mention space for the dirty dishes, as well not to mention (but, oh, I really am mentioning all these unmentionables) the unsanitary conditions that come with not washing dishes. So, I must spend some time doing things like the dishes, the vacuuming, mowing the lawn, scrubbing floors, scrubbing bathrooms and so on and so forth. 

People go to jobs they often detest - spending a lot of time doing something they despise but they do it because not to do it would result in a life of even worse conditions. They 'waste' their time on an awful job for a purpose, so that the time they have outside of that job is comfortable. Some people will 'waste' their time working two or three jobs with very little time to do as they please, but they do it because it gives OTHERS a better life.  

When you have little time to pursue your own comfort and pleasing past times, you most assuredly do not want to waste any of that precious time. How often have you heard people say things like- 'I wasted forty years of my life at that job'? Truly it wasn't wasted, it gave them a lifestyle that if not pleasant perhaps at least it allowed them to live that forty years where they might not have otherwise.

Choosing to look at our lives with the idea we've wasted them away when we could have done things much differently, is sad, very sad. Living with the constant thought of 'if only I'd known then what I know now my life wouldn't have turned out this way', is also very sad. No matter where you are in your life right now- young, old, or in-between the two; no matter what regrets you have over your spent time, you can stop to appreciate this moment right now. Stop dwelling on time past, it truly will only interfere with the current time which will soon enough be your past. Appreciate the very fact that you can know, should you choose to know, that time will one day end and be no more- all time will be no more. EVERY bit of time will be gone for everyone, everywhere.

Yes, now you're thinking I've entered the crazy zone and you've definitely wasted your time reading any of this, sorry, I didn't mean to cheat you out of five minutes or so. I really believe what I just said though. Time will end for all of us when eternity becomes ours. First, eternity has to become ours. As much as we'd love to believe that eternity is guaranteed for all human beings, it's not. If you're of the belief that people who aren't going to have an eternity with God, are going to have an eternity with Satan, suffering, and that yes, one way or another all humans will have eternity it's just a matter of a good or bad one, well, that's not what I believe from my Bible studies. 

I believe my Bible teaches that just like you burn up stubble from a plowed field of corn and that stubble turns to ashes and blows away and is gone forever never to be seen again, I believe that is what will eventually happen to all those who cognitively choose to reject the path of salvation.  They might be punished according to their deeds but that punishment will end and the eternal consequences of their actions will be permanent, they will be no more. There is no way I could ever believe my God would offer me eternal life with Him all the while somewhere there are people suffering horrifically, endlessly. 

People suffer now horrifically, but to believe I could have eternal life in the love of Christ while others are going to be torture for eternity, well, that isn't my God at all. My God is a just God and he'll mete out justice and there will be a complete end to ALL suffering everywhere. I have to believe this. You might think I live in a deluded fantasy world, but I've seen my God work miracles in my own life and the lives of others. I've been given the knowledge through history that there is truth in the word of God and if things predicted have come to pass one after the other, all the rest of the predicted future will also come to pass- there can be NO doubt, none, not in my mind. 

I started out by saying 'time spent with God is never wasted time' and it's true. You cannot waste a single second of your time when God is a part of that time.  I want to add, God can be in all our time and should be in all our time and therefore- we won't have any wasted time. That long wait in a line, that dreadfully tedious job, all of it can include God. 

Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Col 3:17  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Col 3:23  And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men

1Co 10:31  Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 

The only truly wasted time is time spent without God in it. If you think I mean you must be in a constant state of studying and such, no. Just as the above verse says- whether you're eating or drinking… WHATSOEVER you do… do ALL to the glory of God. Just include God in all you do. If Christ is living in you, your hope, He is with you always. When your caught in a traffic jam, stuck in the emergency room for hours, sweating profusely at your job of hard labor, working at a desk for several hours, standing at a kitchen sink,  taking care of children, taking care of the elderly, taking care of the disabled, whatever it is you are doing in your life- put God there with you, please. Use the time for a conversation with God in prayer in between tasks, or during the long periods of waiting. If you have an opportunity (not when you're driving of course) to use your phone/tablet etc during your wait times, read God's word- it's so filled with the things He would have us know. I say this as if it's easy, but it's not. You have an awful enemy who will do everything within his power to keep God out of your life in any way he can. The enemy loves for you to truly waste time, to truly waste the life you've been giving by leaving God out of it if not altogether, than as much as he possibly can.

Don't waste time- don't keep God out of your time, your life- God is our only hope for the future, there is no other. We find salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, and we are given the gift of eternal life through Him. 

All in the name of Jesus Christ, now and forever! Amen!!!!!!!