Why Time is so Precious

"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).  In his outstanding sermon The Preciousness of Time, Jonathan Edwards begins by outlining four reasons why Christians should put a very high value on time: 1. Time is precious because our welfare both in this world and in eternity depends our use of it.  Things are valuable to us in proportion to the degree they concern our welfare.  Our deliverance from infinite misery and our attaining infinite good are what is at stake in our use of time.  2. Time is so valuable because it is a scarce commodity.  Edwards wrote, “Time is so short, and the work we have to do is so great, that we have none of it to spare.  The work we have to do to prepare for eternity, must be done in time, or it can never be done.”  3. We are uncertain how long our time will continue.  We do not know if opportunities that we fail to take advantage of will ever come again.  How much more would we prize our time if we knew that we have only a few weeks left.  4. Time cannot be recovered.  This is so sobering.  Once an hour or a day is past, that priceless moment is gone forever.  We possess many things, which if lost, can be obtained again.  Not so with time.  Once it is past, it is gone; no pains, no cost will recover it.  If we do not use time wisely, it is immediately beyond our reach, and never offered to us again.  No amount of wealth can reclaim wasted time.  No amount of regret will buy us a second chance to live a day over again.