God is conscious of time. He created it. The Bible mentions the passing of time 599 times. The Hebrew word for time is “Yowm.” It literally means “hot,” referring to the heat during the daytime. Days can be hot in more than one way. Today is hot with opportunities for graduates.
During these next five to ten years, God is offering you the gift of singleness. This is a gift you will never receive again. So, don’t waste a single day of your single years.
Life Changes Quickly
For most of you, within the next five to ten years you will complete college or trade school. Some will go on to graduate school or be certified in a particular field. But all of you will likely be employed and married within the next five to ten years. At this point in life, marriage is a scary thought. But not only will you be married; within ten years you will have a child. That’s even scarier.
What changes will take place after you’re married with kids? For one thing, it means your time won’t be your own anymore. No longer will opportunities be as hot as they are right now for personal and vocational advancements. It’s important that you not waste your single years on things that don’t matter.
Distractions are Temptations
Distractions are a major temptation during your single years. At fifteen years old I met Jesus Christ. I graduated from high school at seventeen. I was married at twenty-five and by thirty had two daughters. God gave me ten years to accomplish things for him that today, as a married man, would be extremely difficult if not impossible.
But there were distractions during those ten years. I met a number of attractive and fun women who were interested in spending long hours with me. Several of my best friend and I decided not to formally date so we could pursue the things of God with a single mind. We were aware that our single years were hot days and we needed to make the most of them.
By the time I was twenty, internet and video games were beginning to dominate the market. They were massive time suckers. Sure we played them and enjoyed them but we also disciplined ourselves by placing time constraints on them so they wouldn’t distract us from what we considered important commitments.
Identify with Eternal Things
For a guy, it was important to drive a sports car or have extreme hobbies. However, we didn’t want to waste our single years by attaching our identity to things. We enjoyed sports and owned reliable vehicles, but we chose to primarily identify with Jesus Christ and not things. This meant attaching our affections to eternal things. So, we prayed together, kept life simple, and sought to accomplish God’s will during the hot days of being single.
There are many more things that distract single men and women. The world is full of distractions. So, how did my buddies and I get past temporary pleasures so we could align our lives with eternal purposes? What helped us keep our single days hot with opportunities and activities that had long-term significance and meaning? Here are four things we did that, as I look back on my single years, kept us from squandering time on unimportant and sometimes unhealthy activities.
Remember Your Past
First, we reminded ourselves of our past. Half of us grew up in Christian homes while the other half were newly converted Christians. But we all this in common—we needed to remember what God saved us from. God transformed us and we had grown in our faith. We valued pleasing God and didn’t want to go backward or backslide. And we wanted to advance in our ability to trust God for amazing and impossible things. Remembering the past helps keep faith alive.
My peer group was against this. They allowed worthless distractions to become priorities by wasting their single years on women, wine, and worldly pleasures. If you value redemption from worthless idols and pursuits, then remember your past. Remember your parent’s faith but now make that faith your own. And commit your time to important things that enhance your faith.
The sooner you do this the greater your investment in the future will be. Identifying and denying distractions in your life means taking responsibility to mature into your own hands and living every breath by faith for God’s glory.
Make the Most of the Present
Second, remembering the past allows you to make the most of the present. God designed us to celebrate and enjoy life. He is a purposeful and creative God. Jesus offers a quality of life called eternal. Eternal life isn’t just living forever. It’s living in abundance now. God’s diverse creativity reveals the quality of eternity. He could have created one kind of bird but he didn’t. He formed the species bird and then made thousands of types, sizes, and colors all at once. And he did this with every kind of living thing including human beings. His creativity reflects abundant life. And Jesus called this abundant life a life that enjoys the quality of eternity.
If you notice anything from creation it’s that, 1) life has a designer, 2) God is creatively involved with life, and 3) his goal for each of us is to enjoy life forever. These lessons become valuable and guide you through life if understood in the context of faith in Jesus as Lord and King. He claimed to bring abundant life. By this, he meant that having a relationship with him adds to our daily existence the quality of eternity.
What a shame to ignored him or placed our relationship with him on hold. Temporal interests often replace our pursuit of godliness. Nothing is more important during our single years than having an active living faith in Jesus. Let what God thinks and desires become what you think and hope for. How unfortunate it is when someone chooses not to recognize the Lord before their acquaintances or to live by his moral standards because they are ashamed of the God who made them.
Grow in Faith
Growing in faith is the single most important aspect of maturing into adulthood. It’s what pleases God. And, it’s what distinguishes you and me from the crowd. Faith in Jesus as Lord is a distinctive and life guiding characteristic. Without faith in Jesus as our Creator, life loses the element of eternity and our hot single days are squandered on temporal and meaningless activities. Growing faith takes effort, time, and determination. It begins as a gift from God. But he expects us to nurture it, protect it, and grow in our use of it.
Prepare for the Future
Finally, make the most of your single years by preparing for the future. The hot days of single adulthood don’t have to be full of regrets. They can be the most productive time of your life. If you remember the past, make the most of the present, grow your faith, and use singleness as a time to grow in responsibility and maturity, then your future will be much brighter and you will experience the quality of eternity every day.
Think forward. Act with the future in mind. Lay the groundwork today for what you want to be as a productive adult in the future. Don’t waste the hot days of singleness. Fill them with actions that reflect your identity as a follower of Jesus Christ and one who possesses the gift of eternal life. Your time on earth, when considered of from a biblical perspective, is ultimately preparation for spending eternity somewhere else and with the Lord of eternity.
Scriptures That Encourage an Eternal Perspective
Here are some Scriptures that help us remember the importance of every day of our single lives in light of eternity.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
John 10:10, 11:25-26, 12:25, 14:6-7, 17:3, Heb 11:6
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