Smart phones have not only become the main source of news and entertainment, but also our source of time.

Remember not long ago when we had to go through the house changing the clocks when the time changed? Now our electronic device of choice does it for us automatically. I suppose we’ll still have to change the time on the appliances… for now!

The main source however for keeping many of us on schedule, on time is our phone.

Whether it’s a clock on the wall, an heirloom sitting on a mantle or the I Phone in your hand, the issue is time.

Arnold Bennett wrote, “Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle; an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! Your purse is magically filled with 24 hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. It is not something that can be stolen. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. Moreover, you cannot draw on its future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you. You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time.

Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. Your happiness, the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends depends on that. If one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one’s whole life indefinitely. We shall never have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.”

Now there’s a perspective for you and while we consider time let’s remember the scriptures admonition regarding the subject… The Psalmist once said, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Timely advice!

When you are not sure of the time, you are in danger of wasting great opportunities.

Psalm 39 gives us some perspective. In David’s complaint to God, he said, “You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You.”

He meant that to an eternal God our time on earth is brief.

And He doesn’t want us to waste it. When we do, we throw away one of the most precious commodities He gives us.

Each minute is an irretrievable gift — and unredeemable slice of eternity. When you are not sure of the time you run the risk of missing appointments.

Dennis Rainey, of Family Life Today, writes, “A Divine Appointment”— A meeting with another person that has been specifically and unmistakably ordered by God.

Have you ever had a “divine appointment”? I believe that I have.

I’ve sometimes wondered how many of these supernaturally scheduled meetings I’ve missed because I didn’t have my spiritual radar turned on.

The Scriptures say, “The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.”

When you are not sure of the time you have a false sense of security.

Though no one seems to know the author, I’ve heard many preachers share this anecdote over the years to allow their hearers to understand the tactics Satan uses when mankind is presented with the gospel message.

The devil and his cohorts were devising plans to get people to reject the Gospel.

“Let’s go to them and say there is no God,” proposed one. Silence prevailed. Every devil knew that most people believe in a supreme being.

“Let’s tell them there is no hell, no future punishment for the wicked,” offered another. That was turned down, because men obviously have consciences, which tell them that sin must be punished.

The concave was going to end in failure when there came a voice from the rear: “Tell them there is a God, there is a hell and that the Bible is the Word of God. But tell them there is plenty of time to decide the question. Let them ‘neglect’ the Gospel, until it is too late.”

All hell erupted with ghoulish glee, for they knew that if a person procrastinated on Christ, they usually never accept Him.

Thomas Brooks once said, “Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure and pays with pain; he promises profit and pays with loss; he promises life and pays with death.”

Time matters but more importantly, the correct time matters much.

The question is not what time is it? The question is, do you have the time?

One thing is for sure, there will come a day when you will take the time to stand before God.

Tim Throckmorton is the national director of Family Resource Council’s Community Impact Teams.