Every Moment

Every breath. 

Every heartbeat. 

God has granted me this moment -  every moment of my life.

In December, I had a birthday. For my birthday, one of my friends gave me some money and told me to pick out something that I’d like and then let him know what I got. I thought about it for a long while. I thought of all the things I needed. I allowed myself to dwell also on the things that I wanted. I needed all sorts of things: new shoes, new clothes, boring stuff like that. But somehow I just could’t bring myself to get something like that because, well, it would be awkward for my friend to have given me that stuff as a gift instead of the money. So instead I went for something a little bit different but that both my friend and I could appreciate.

I was thinking about this yesterday in the car as we drove home. The every breath and every heartbeat reality was mentioned in the conversation and my mind wandered. God giving my a moment is like my friend giving me that money. It was His. Now it is mine. To do with what I will. BUT He requires a report on how I am going to use it.

How am I going to use it? Well, with this reality always in mind, I’m not going to squander it on useless activity, ungodly thoughts or association, or idleness. I’m going to strive to invest in each moment everything that I possibly can to promote the salvation of myself and other people around me. Something that both God and I will be pleased with in the end result.

How I wish I could report that this was my experience, that I remember this reality every moment, that I live each and every moment the way that God smiles upon. I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I can work on it. Let’s make that our challenge for today. 

With God’s grace and His Holy Spirit to remind us, lets treat every moment, every breath, every heartbeat as a precious gift from our Maker. Invest each moment in eternity. Time is passing quickly my friend and NOW is the time to start living our lives as Jesus did.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17