“It’s Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to You only”
Great Are You Lord, All Sons And Daughters
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.”
Psalm 150:6: NKJV
I have often heard it said that time is money. Time is precious – and while it doesn’t really always equate to ‘cash money’ – it is very much a type of currency. A type of Kingdom Currency with which we can buy eternal treasures.
In writing these devotional pieces I have come to realise that even though it seems like each has its own theme there is a central line. Worship is not about music – it is not simply the songs we sing – it is very much how we live our lives.
Worship is a lifestyle.
An idea I have used often in sermons is that the first act of worship was Adam exhaling.
God blew breath into Adam and he RESPONDED.
Worship is our response to the goodness, the glory and the beauty of God.
Worship is not just our response to what He does (in this case, giving life) but also a response to who He is (the Lifegiver).
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 139, the fact that God knew me even before I was woven in the secret place of my mother’s womb. David puts it beautifully:
“Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.”
(Psalm 139:16, NKJV)
All the days fashioned for me. God had a plan from the get go. A plan for me.
As I ponder the passing on of some of the dear people in my life over the last few years I come to realize that the time we have here really is not ours at all.
We are all living on borrowed time.
The breath in my lungs belongs to God. It is His and will return to Him when my time here is said and done.
This breath in my lungs is borrowed. It is borrowed time in which I get to make up my mind – do I return with this breath to the One who gave it, or do I return to dust?
The choice for many of us is clear – for others not so.
So how should we then look at the time we have here on Earth?
Jonathan Edwards said the following: “Christians should not only study to improve the opportunities they enjoy, for their own advantage, as those who would make a good bargain; but also labour to reclaim others from their evil courses; that so God might defer his anger, and time might be redeemed from that terrible destruction, which, when it should come, would put an end to the time of divine patience.”
We are to labour – to invest this Kingdom Currency – and see the returns and fruit thereof.
The time we have here on Earth, the breath in our lungs is borrowed. It is very much like a talent given to a worker (Matthew 25), property entrusted to us so that we might properly steward it towards an increase.
One Talent was equal to about twenty years worth of wages.
And so it is that one might be given 80 years, another 60 – and yet another 20 years – but it is not what you are given but what you do with it that matters.
Let us not waste the time we have been given. Let us do as Edwards recommends and redeem the time. Let us use it wisely. Let every breath be used in the worship – the reverence, adoration, pursuit and proper service – of our God and King.
Let us not waste time in seeking Him today – let us not procrastinate, let us not wait – but let us be wholly in pursuit of Him.
Let us not waste time in seeking our neighbour. Let us use our time wisely so that we may reclaim others from their evil courses of self-destruction and damnation.
Let us redeem our time and worship Him with every step and every breath we take.
Prayer: Oh Lord, help me redeem my time. Let me spend every waking moment in pursuit of Your Will and Purpose, Your Heart and Mind for my life. Lord, help me use my time wisely and labour to save others from their evil courses. Give me discernment, give me wisdom Lord, so that I might see revival here in my lifetime. Give me strength Lord, lead me in discipline and righteousness for Your Name’s sake. Let my life glorify You. In the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.