1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV) Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

As I reflect on all the years of my life on this earth, I shudder to think of all the things that I have gotten myself involved with that were a total waste of time. There are a lot of things that we spend time doing that don’t even have any temporary value, let alone eternal value. For example, think of all the countless, wasted hours that many people spend on social media. Most of it doesn’t mean anything and on the greater downside, a lot of what you look at or read is not only worthless but can be damaging to your mind and soul and can affect you in a very negative way. According to studies done, it is estimated that globally, people spend 11.5 billion hours daily on social media platforms. That’s just social media. There are plenty of other things that are a total waste of our time as well.

Each of us have twenty-four hours each day to live and do things. Almost a third of that is spent sleeping. That leaves us sixteen hour a day to hopefully do something productive. The most productive things that we can be involved with are things that have eternal value. Who sets that value? God does. No one can speak to this better than He because He not only created all things in the world but He created us as well. He is the one who made us and He is the one that knows what makes us tick. He knows what benefits and blesses us and He knows what brings harm to us and He has let us in on that knowledge through His Word. Ultimately, we find our deepest satisfaction in our relationship with Jesus.

Before we had a relationship with Jesus, our soul was searching for what we could never find because our soul was created to find its purpose and its rest in Him. Because of that, the things that we spend time doing that involve the things of God bring us the most satisfaction and blessing. Two reasons for that are that first, we were created to participate in those things and second, those things have eternal value. They range from spreading the gospel to helping others in their life journey. For example, telling someone about Jesus has great eternal value because it can spare someone from eternal damnation. Equally valuable is helping someone who is in need because through kind acts of service, the love of Jesus is communicated, which speaks a beautiful message to those that don’t know Jesus as well as extending God’s blessing to those that do know Him. Nothing that we do regarding the work of the Lord is ever wasted and is never in vain, as the scripture above says.

Let’s take stock of the time that we are wasting each day and look to use that time instead to do something in Jesus’ name that will bless others and that will advance the Kingdom of God. Think of all the hours that we as believers can collectively invest to do good in this world for the glory of God. You can be certain that it will be time that we will not have any regrets about and that will never be wasted or be done in vain.

Pastor Joey Vazquez