1440

Suppose a wealthy man came up to you and informed you that he was putting $1,440 in your bank account every day for the rest of your life. Each and every day you had to spend it all, without any limitation on what or where you could spend it. But at the end of each day, what was not spent would be lost; you couldn’t save it. Then, at the end of your life, an accounting would be made of what you had done with the money. How you spent it would be the basis of how your life would be judged… did you spend it on yourself or on helping others?

Sounds like quite a challenge that, in reality, none of us will ever be faced with, a responsibility for which we won’t have to worry about being judged. Perhaps we should think again.

God has given us today, and He will continue to give us every day until the day He calls us home, 1,440 minutes, which we can spend any way we choose. The only requirement is that we have to spend them! We can’t save them, we have none left over from yesterday and tomorrow’s 1,440 are not here yet. And at the end of our life there will be a strict accounting of what we have done with all the minutes we have been given at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

I think that is what Paul was telling the Colossians…

Col 4:5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 

Here in verse 5, “redeeming” is the Greek word exagorazomenoi, which means “to buy up for oneself” – “to buy up the opportunity.” And the “time” (kairon) refers to a “season” or a time in which something is “seasonable.” In other words, making the most of every opportunity, turning each one into the best advantage since none can be recalled if they are missed.

There will come a time when opportunities will no longer come our way and the day of accounting will be at hand. That is why Paul is telling us to make the best possible use of our time. Paul could have chosen to waste his time complaining and moping about all the restrictions that were placed on his freedom; thrown in prison and chained to Roman guards 1,44o minutes of every day. But he chose to invest his time in writing his letters and books, praying for the advancement of the gospel and sharing that gospel with every guard that took his turn being chained to him.

Those 1,440 minutes are God’s gift to us today, and how we choose to spend them has eternal consequences. Therefore we need to choose wisely and fully invest them each and every day. Our goal should be to lay our head on our pillow at night with no regret for having wasted any of them.

The clock is ticking!