There was a wife in my first church who didn’t go out to work but every day she would walk around the shops looking for bargains. It was amazing the savings that this couple made on their food bills. I remember going round to their home for a meal to be told it cost less than £1 for the whole meal! I wasn’t sure whether to say another prayer for protection regarding what I had eaten. But her ability to grab a bargain was indeed impressive.
It is this ability to spot a bargain, to see something that won’t be there for long, so you buy it there and then, this is the word that the Apostle uses. It is exagorazo.
Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5 v16
Our translation uses 3 words ‘making the most’ from that one word. It means to redeem the time.
The days of evil create opportunities that must be ‘seized in the lifetime of that opportunity’ (a well-known phrase from revivalist Leonard Ravenhill).
The days of the pandemic have created opportunities.
The days of the Lebanon blast have created opportunities.
The days of the Persecuted Church have created opportunities.
Redeem the time.
Then what about your life?
What was in your sights a few years ago, maybe decades ago? You never saw it realised. But maybe it’s still in your heart. Maybe the Holy Spirit is restoring vision to you as you listen to this. Yes you’re older now but still you know you are called for higher ground. You are not called for the foothills, but for the summit. Like Caleb you cry out ‘God give me one chance, grant me the opportunity of higher ground.’
You only stop being a pilgrim in this world when you pass into the next. Retirement doesn’t stop you. Your health doesn’t stop you. You are a journeyman redeeming the time, taking the opportunity to be who God has called you to be.
There are works of God in your life still to be finished. There is potential that is not being realised.
Michaelangelo worked on 44 statues in his life. Thirty were never finished. These unfinished works, the unfulfilled potential of a great genius will never be completed. Whole theses and books have been written trying to understand why there was so many unfinished works. Still to this day arguments continue over the opinions ranging from simply dissatisfaction with his own work to some spiritual conflict over his Christian subject in an art form that was seen at the time as pagan.
It is a sad day when we leave this world with unfinished business especially when our hearts are full of ideas and desires to something larger which we know we were meant and intended to do.
Redeem the time now.
This is my time. I don’t get another chance.
This is my time to stop blaming my enemies as the excuse for not being who I am.
This is my time to come from behind the scenes of failure and obscurity.
This is my time to stop pretending in order to escape facing reality.
This is my time to stop hiding, holding back what lies within me.
This is my time of finding strength in God.
This is my time for a new anointing.
This is my time of taking the good news to those in need.
This is my time to heal the heartbroken.
This is my time to announce freedom and grace to all who are captive.
This is my time to forgive those who are guilty There’s no time like this time.
Redeem the time
What matters is not where I live, but who I live for. God is everything to me. No matter what happens I will survive.
If disaster comes tomorrow I am ready
I am living for God now and he will guide and protect me through the attacks of the enemy.
I don’t know what is around the corner but I am nearer to it today.
Redeem the time
I have ‘10,000 reasons’ to be so.
The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning, it’s time to sing MY song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me, I WILL be singing when the evening comes.
And on that day when my strength is failing the end draws near and my time has come, still my soul will sing HIS praise unending, 10,000 years and then forevermore.
Redeem the time
God is working in me and so I do not give up.
All things will work together so I will hang on.
Even though I stare defeat in the face I do not look away or back off, I keep staring.
I will never be intimidated by anyone.
If I become disabled or suffer a setback I will manage it, I will learn from it and change.
I will always try again.
If I am defeated it does not mean the battle has been lost I will surrender to God no one else.
Redeem the time.
Missions Paul 