October 14, 2022A few weeks ago, I began sharing insights from “Mastering Life Before It’s Too Late” by Robert J. Morgan. On the back cover of this excellent book, we read: “In this book, you’ll discover the godly rhythms of productive people – lifelong patterns to help you order your life, beginning today. Rather than adding pressure to your schedule, you’ll find that a God-planned life actually relieves stress and produces a more relaxed yet resolute lifestyle. By following these ten biblical patterns, you can gain control of yourself, take charge of each day, and finish your life’s work well.”
In the introduction to this book, Morgan writes: “We have a limited number of days on earth, and we don’t know how many are left. We believe we’re on this planet for a reason, but most people can’t figure out what it is. Our ability to influence the world is directly proportional to our knack for managing our own lives, but we have trouble with that too. We search everywhere for ways to improve, yet the only truly effective life is one unapologetically woven from the strands of Scripture.” As I read this, I thought of the legacy that people like Queen Elizabeth II and my mother left to their families and others. The influence of godly people reaches further and longer than we think.
Robert Morgan organizes his insights into ten patterns, the first of which is “Listen to a Twelve-Year-Old.” The first three chapters of his book examine how we can be effective in our life, including helpful advice from authors such as John Maxwell: “There are only a handful of important decisions people need to make in their entire lifetime. If you make decisions in those key areas once and for all – and then manage those decisions daily – you can create the kind of tomorrow you desire. Successful people make right decisions early and manage those decisions daily. If we want to do something with our lives, then we must focus on today.”
In last week’s blog, we looked at the fourth chapter, which is the first of four chapters in the second pattern: “Redeem the Time.” In the fifth chapter, Morgan quotes Charles Caleb Colton, a British writer who said “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and “When you have nothing to say, say nothing.” Colton defines time as: “the most indefinable, yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past, even while we attempt to define it, and like the flash of the lightning, at once exists and expires.” He further noted that time is “the bleak and narrow isthmus between two eternities.”
Morgan writes: “That reminds me of two passages in the Bible – Psalm 90 and Ephesians 5. These two portions of Scripture are about time and our custodianship of it. One occurs in the middle of the Old Testament and the other in the middle of the New. One is a prayer to offer, the other a command to obey. The first was written by Moses, the second by the apostle Paul.”
In commenting on Psalm 90, Morgan observes: “We who are transitory should ask Him who is transcendent to help us be wise stewards of our swiftly passing years, days, and hours … Since You are infinite and my life on earth is brief, teach me to count each day and to make each day count.”
In examining Ephesians 5:15-16, Morgan notes: “Our time-saving technologies have made us busier than ever, and the sheer volume of everyday life is overwhelming our systems. I sometimes feel like Abraham Lincoln when besieged by people pestering him for government jobs at the same time the Civil War was breaking out. He said he felt like a man renting out rooms at one end of the house while the other end was on fire.”
Morgan concludes by quoting an old couplet attributed to C.T. Studd:
This was on a wooden plaque in the kitchen of my parents’ house and made an impression on me as I was growing up. How about you? Have you asked God’s forgiveness for your sins and trusted Christ as your Saviour? Have you asked the Lord to help you to live wholeheartedly for His glory? If not, why not?
Scripture for the weekend: “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 (NKJV)
Thought for the weekend: “If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time may be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again … Let us then be up and doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity.” – Benjamin Franklin