The Time is Now
John 4:33-36
Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
One of the greatly effective tools of the devil is to encourage us to delay in our work for God. Sometimes, rather than directly trying to get us to do evil, he just gives us reasons to put off the doing of good until later. But the time to act is now. The great Scottish pastor and missionary pioneer Robert Moffatt said, “We'll have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset to win them.”
The fields of the world are white right now. We do not need to wait until some point in the future to start sharing the gospel with others. We do not need to wonder if we should act now to help a widow with young children or an elderly couple in the church. We do not need to find a perfect moment to say a kind word or share a prayer of encouragement. All of those things are always “in season,” and we should not miss the chance to do them.
The temptation to wait for a better time will cause us to miss what is right in front of us if we give in to it. There are people you can help today, people to whom you can witness, people with whom you can pray. Do those things today. None of us knows what the future holds.
Growth Principle:
The opportunities we have to serve God today will never come again.