Win the Day #7 | Wind the Clock
To Win The Day you have to Wind The Clock.
Get some smart thinking about time… which goes way beyond just time management.
Here are my random musings on time:
- Having just celebrated my 65th birthday
- About ready to celebrate 40 years of marriage
- Church 32 years
- 30,000 ft ideas
Psalms 37:25 I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread
- Time marches on for all of us
It marches faster than you think it will. You can get more money but you cannot get more time.
If you waste $100 you could get $100 more.
If you waste a day… it’s over, you cannot get it back.
Your kids will only be toddlers for a little while. Friendships ebb and flow.
Seasons of life keep changing.
In the scramble to keep it all together… you can miss the moments. Create moments and schedule your pleasure, because life will schedule your pain.
- Time has been, Time is, Time will be
An old fashion clock shows the time that is, the time that was, the time that will be. A digital watch just shows the time that is in the moment.
You only have this moment, but this moment is built on previous moments.
This moment creates the next moment.
We are all standing on the shoulders of someone who was brave before us and we need to be brave for those coming behind us.
Our church is the answer to the prayers of a previous generation. We are praying prayers that are creating things for the next generation. There are people who were part of our church 5 years ago that are not here anymore.
There are people who will be part of our church in 5 years that we don’t even know yet.
Someone or something may have hurt you or you feel you lost something. But time marches on… and God will be there for you.
Newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness or not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages. – John Piper
I love new! But I can also love the past that has brought me to today.
- The arrow of Time moves in one direction for us but God is omnipresent and over all of time.
He is over the train track of time God is preparing good works in advance for you.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them
He is ordering your steps…
Psalms 37:23 The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
Psalms 37:24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand
He is in the business of strategically positioning you in the right place at the right time. A good God who is over all of time, is watching over you. So make sure you’re staying connected to Him.
In my early years, I tried too hard because I thought too much depended on me. I was striving and grinding. Carrying the canoe, rather than getting in it.
Let the game come to you.
God has apportioned to each one of us a measure of grace, live in that grace lane. Each one of us has a grace lane.
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
There is a labor within the grace God gives you. Remain open minded while having a one track mind. Know your lane and stay in it. Slow and steady wins the race. It all comes down to the survival of the persistent.
John 3:27 John answered and said, “ A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
Psalms 16:5 The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot.
Psalms 16:6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
Let grace give you the amazing life God has planned for you. Never let anyone but God define your life. You are the one who has to live with your choices.
Find your own grace lane. Find your own voice.
- Not all time is of equal value
Remember chronos and kairos time?
Chronos time well used creates greater opportunities for Kairos moments.
Being at Mega Worship creates an opportunity for God to move in your life. Being in church creates opportunities for God moments.
I’m not a proponent on cramming something into every moment of time, but I am a proponent on spending time with intentionality. There are some things that just have to happen in the majority of our days… These are things that wind the clock for us.
Not perfection but:
- Bible
- Prayer & Worship
- Exercise
- Hug Suzette
I don’t really enjoy exercising today but I’ve got an eye on tomorrow.
- Live today with a vision for tomorrow
Mindfully keeping one eye on eternity and the other eye on present opportunity. Staying in sync with what God is doing now. But still living with expectancy for the future.
Our commitment to the health of our church has been and is a long-term commitment. Suzette and I have been here a long time and we’re committed to whatever it takes for our church to go strong into the future.
It’s been 11,588 days since we drove in to WNC to start The Rock Church.
We have a history… 11,588 days
We are in the present.
There is a future.
My commitment to my marriage has been and is a long term commitment. 14,464 days since Suzette and I said “I do!”.
When you’re going through hell, Don’t stop. Keep walking through your valley of despair. Learn your lessons there. You’ll always come out brighter on the other side.
In 2006 I turned 50. We were nearing the end of the worst storm, valley, and difficult season our church had ever gone through. But I didn’t know it was ending in the next year. I really was wondering if the whole thing was going to unravel.
Psalms 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Psalms 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
We are all going to go through Hard Times. If you will keep walking through your valleys of despair. Learn your lessons there. You’ll always come out brighter on the other side.
Don’t make a decision in the middle of a storm you’ll regret on a peaceful day.
Look back on God’s faithfulness.
Look ahead on God’s faithfulness.