Redeeming Precious Time

"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).  Jonathan Edwards said that time is a thousand times more precious than money.  He carefully explained in his sermon The Preciousness of Time how different kinds of people needed to take the exhortation of Ephesians 5:16 to heart.  Some waste their time in idleness, doing nothing to any good purpose. These people do not place a high value on time.   Then there are those who not only waste their time, but do worse.  They use it in pursuits that bring great harm to themselves and others.  This terrible misuse of God’s gift will increase their eternal misery.  Others use their time only for their own benefit in this life.  Time used in this selfish way will be lost.  Edwards affirmed, “Time was not given for itself, but for that everlasting relation which succeeds it.  They, therefore, whose time is taken up in caring and laboring for the world only; in contriving to lay up for themselves treasures upon earth; they lose their precious time.”  Edwards concluded by exhorting us to carefully consider what he had said.  If we have a right conception of these things, every moment and hour will be far more valuable to us than gold.  God commands us to make the most of our time (Ephesians 5:16); the previous verse (5:15) tells us that wisdom is needed to do that.  Throughout the Bible, wisdom to a large degree involves being aware of time, and being careful how it is used.  The substance of the prayer for wisdom in Psalm 90:12, involves the realization that the days our lives pass by quickly: “So teach us to number our days, that we may