My Time is Not My Own

Psalm 31: 14-17a
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

"14But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, "You are my God." 15My times are in Your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. 16Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness. 17Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call upon You;…"

While my times are in God’s hand, what I do with my time is a choice God leaves up to me. Life is so full of choices. I can choose to sit and watch, or I can choose to play in the game.

I picked up a book today entitled, THE JOURNEY FROM SUCCESS TO SIGNIFICANCE by John C. Maxwell. The book is full of quotes. One that is worthy of note is the following quote by Gail Sheehy: “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it, ‘Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what people fear most.’ The real fear should be the opposite.”

When the psalmist prayed “deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me” he was probably referring to those who wanted to kill him physically. Our prayer today may need to be that God protect us from the enemies that steal our time, and therefore our abilities to use the time, that God has given us to be significant in the life of someone else.

Am I willing to take a new step or utter a new word, placing my trust in God, rather than hiding behind my fears?