Time Is Limited: How Christians Can Best Use It

Posted on Apr 06, 2023 Topic : Men's Christian Living, Prophecy, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Amir Tsarfati

In the Western church, we don’t understand persecution. If you want to know what being a Christian can cost you, look to the pastors who are in Iranian jails. Or go to the hidden house churches in China. Or listen to the testimonies of the Nigerian survivors of Boko Haram attacks on their churches. That is true persecution. What we are experiencing in the West is inconvenience. But true persecution is coming for the tribulation believers.

For us now, the worst we will likely experience due to the sharing of our faith is some awkwardness, maybe a few tough questions, and possibly some embarrassment when we aren’t sure of the answers.

But the problem isn’t just that Christians don’t want to risk a conflict by sharing their faith. Most don’t even think about it! It’s not part of their lifestyle. They have bought into the satanic mindset that this life is about them—their comfort, their contentment. As a result, they waste their lives with wasteful living. What is wasteful living? It is all that time, money, and effort focused on yourself and your happiness and your stuff.

We have been given the free gift of salvation. And we are expected to use it. Being a Christian is more than just possessing a ticket to heaven. When we say yes to Jesus, we are not just becoming part of His family, we are joining up with His workforce. He has created us and called us to Himself, and now He is ready to deploy us to the tasks that He has specially prepared for each of us individually.

The temporal focus says, “I’ve got to get all the enjoyment I can out of this life now. I’ve got to see all I can see and do all I can do. I’ve got to visit all the places I want to go to. My bucket list runneth over, and I’ve got to check off every item.” This is a perfectly understandable mindset if you know nothing about eternity. But we know better. Jesus said,

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:24‑25).

Those are familiar words for anyone who has been a Christian for any amount of time. The question is, are you truly living it? Are you denying yourself for the sake of your mission? Are you sacrificing your comfort in pursuit of your calling? There are many Christians who would be willing to die for their faith. But how many are genuinely living it day by day by day? Paul compared our lives to a race, writing, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it” (1 Corinthians 9:24). What does it look like to run to win?

Look at Paul’s life in 2 Timothy 4:6‑8.

He ran hard until the end, always mindful that each day could be his last, whether through death or rapture. We must live the same way, because by death or rapture, each day might also be our last. Time is short; don’t waste it on yourself.