Read: Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22, Corinthians 6:1-13, Psalm 46:1-11, Proverbs 22:15

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Relate: Five dollars a day. I’m 40(ish) years old. If I were to put away five dollars a day every day into an account like an IRA or 401K, by the time I was 75 I would be a millionaire. Me. I don’t make a lot of money. I don’t have a lot of money but if I were faithful every day with a little, I would eventually have a lot. The problem is, today, right now, I want that cappuccino. I know I have food at home, but I’m hungry now, so I’m going to get that “value” meal from Popeyes.

The same thing is true in the spiritual realm. The first fruits, the tithe, of what I make is not mine. It is God’s. He has promised that if I am faithful with that, He would be faithful in return. It is one of the few things with which He asked us, He dared us, to test Him. The average weekly giving of a person at church is less than $27. That faithfulness, that sacrifice is beautiful… if we all made $14,000 a year. If the average person was making 30k, then they are robbing God of half of what belongs to Him. So often we are praying for faith that God would provide us with a miracle when He has already given us opportunity after opportunity to be faithful. Had we taken those opportunities, had we been faithful with our time at that time, the need for a miracle today would not exist.

React: I have always been a fan of “later”. When I get to college I’ll be more diligent in studying than I am now. When I get in the new house I’ll be more faithful to keep it clean. When I get that raise, I will be more faithful to tithe. When I find the right girl I will be more faithful to be… faithful. I should be running every day and I will be faithful to start that… tomorrow. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun. But the time for what I want to do always seems to be “now” and the time for what I should do always seems to be “later”.

I have dreams for my future. I have dreams about what I would like to see happen. But those dreams will always remain dreams unless I am willing to take a little time today, and then the next day, and then the one after that to walk a step or two towards those dreams. My family has a game that I’m probably the worst at playing. It’s called 20/20. (For me its 10/10) When the house is a mess they’ll set a timer. For twenty minutes they’ll do whatever they want: watch TV, check out facebook, play candy crush or PUBG, whatever. Then when that timer rings they put aside whatever they were doing, reset it, and get to cleaning. When it rings again, back to the fun stuff. What if I was able to do that with everything? What if I was able to take my expendable time (and money) and balance it between the fun now and faithfulness towards the future? I wonder what God would be able to do in me and through me?

Respond:

Dear God,
Help me to be faithful in every step of my journey. Times will come and go. There will be laughter and tears, ups and downs, storm and sunshine, feast and famine. Through it all, help me to be faithful and steadily walking towards You. Help me to live and enjoy each moment of time as it is meant to be lived, but don’t let the crunch of time, or its steady march, derail or distract me from my walk with You towards what You have called me to become.
Amen