Redeeming the Time

This morning marked the end of daylight savings time for 2018. According to Wikipedia, “Daylight saving time in the United States is the practice of setting the clock forward by one hour during the warmer part of the year, so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less.” A phrase often used to remind people how this works is “spring forward, fall back.”

Most of America observes daylight savings time except for Arizona (minus Navajo tribal lands), Hawaii, and overseas territories. There have been various debates regarding this practice. I personally prefer having an extra hour of daylight in the evening especially when doing street ministry.

The Bible has an account of a supernatural extension of daylight. Look at what happened in Joshua 10…

12 Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”

13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. 

14 And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and reverse bad decisions? While we cannot undo the past, God has ways of redeeming our future if we do our part. Colossians 4:5 says, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.”

In addition, when we make Bible reading a priority, it supernaturally gives us more time to do other important things. In her book “God's Will for You”, Gloria Copeland wrote about how when she and her husband Kenneth moved to Tulsa in the late 1960s, she had many responsibilities. Following a suggestion made by Oral Roberts, Gloria made a commitment to read the Gospels and the book of Acts from her Amplified Bible three times within 30 days. As a result, Gloria got more things accomplished in her life than ever before. Proverbs 3:1-2 says, “My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.”

Once I heard Kenneth Copeland praying about how much farther he’d be in ministry had he gotten born again at an earlier age. The Lord told Kenneth he would be exactly where he was. This illustrates one of my favorite Scriptures…Joel 2:25, “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.”

It’s often been said if we take care of God’s business, He will take care of ours.

“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” - Ephesians 5:15-16