Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should. — Psalm 90:10
The preacher was making his final point as he closed his message. “So everyone of us has an expiration date on this earth. So what are we going to do with the rest of our lives before that date arrives? Job told us about it in the midst of his crisis, ‘You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer’ (Job 14:5). King David preached about it as he spoke of God’s sovereignty, ‘You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book’ (Psalm 139:16); and the writer of Hebrews made it an exclamation point concerning Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, ‘And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment’ (Hebrews 9:27).
“So as believers,” he continued, “let me challenge us to do what the Apostle Paul instructed. Let’s be about, ‘redeeming the time’ we have left (Ephesians 5:16).” That last statement made me to want to take a deeper look. What does it mean to be, “redeeming the time”?
To “redeem” in the New Testament (exagorazo) generally means, “to buy up, to buy all that is anywhere to be bought.” The word for “time” (kairos) points to a special appointed time of opportunity, rather than a chronological time like hours and minutes. It’s a God-given opportunity, a favorable opportunity, that is being offered to mankind at a specific moment in history. It implies the right moment; that which lasts only for a while.
This begs the question, “Are we living in a kairos moment today that we are to redeem?” If so, this is our challenge to take advantage of the season God has allotted us to advance His Kingdom—by sharing His truth to those who He has prepared to hear His saving message.
Perhaps this pandemic and subsequent events and the accompanying fear and uncertainty is one of those appointed times as people are running scared seeking answers that fail to come. What better time than right now to share with them the hope we have in Jesus? Are we still here for such a time as this? Maranatha!
To help us walk closer with God and to know Him better
