Thought for Today

Redeeming the Time

“For John was not yet cast into prison”
John 3:24

John did not know what lay before him. The verse preceding this one tells us “and John also was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim…”. He was active and occupied with doing the will of God. Time is deceitful; its passage is swift and determined. There is never a moment like the present to be about our Father’s will. Slumber and apathy are thieves of the religious. The slothful one betrays their own heart with whispers of tomorrow or another day.

Just as John did not know what lay before him, neither do we. This precious gift of life is only available to us today; it is in making the most of each day that we experience the fullness of His call and purpose. The Son knew His time and filled it to the full in doing and being about His Father’s business. John testifies of the Son at the close of his Gospel:

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did,
the which, if they should be written every one,
I suppose that even the world itself
could not contain the books that should be written”
John 21:25

How can we who claim to hold Him in our hearts be unlike the One who in 33 years accomplished so much? Even at the age of twelve Jesus was engaged in the will of His Father.

“He said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must
be doing the works of my Father?”
Luke 2:49

Is it possible that we have muted the voice of the Father by the busyness of the world, the cares of this life and the religious attitudes of not being ready or worthy?

“And the one having been sown among the thorns, this is the one hearing the word, but the care of this present age and the deceit of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” Matthew 13:22

Ω

“I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly”
John 10:10

Brian Troxel
www.aword.info