"Jesus waited until He was 30 years old to begin his public ministry. David, the greatest king of Israel, was crowned at 30 years old. Joseph was 30 when he stood before Pharaoh. And today, many successful church leaders testify they began to see unusual results in their ministries when they were 30 years old.
There would seem to be a pattern of 30 years of age being the beginning of the season of greatest fruitfulness in the plan of God for many of our lives. By the time we reach 30 we’ve generally completed our formal education, chosen our spouse, and begun working in the area of our life’s calling. 30 year olds have also reached a maturity level that allows them to choose accomplishment over amusement.
If you are a young person, trying to detect God’s plan for your life, keep in mind the example of Jesus, and consider making the 30th year of your life a key event in your long term planning as you try to redeem the time.
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"On April 14, 2002, Jenny Wood-Allen completed the London Marathon in 11 hours 34 minutes. That might not seem so significant except that Jenny Wood-Allen was born in 1911. And at 90 years 145 days old she became the oldest woman to finish a marathon.
Jenny Wood-Allen didn’t run her first marathon until she was 71. But you and I are in a race today- A race against time. Our greatest challenge is to see how much we can get done for the Lord between now and the day we die.
To win that race we have to make some decisions. There’s not time to do everything we’d like to do. We have to choose between a fun-filled life and a fruitful life. Those who focus on seeing how much fun they can have, come to the end of their race dreading death and giving account to God for their time.
But those who focus on fruitful living will experience a fruitful death as well, knowing they have redeemed the time.
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"Here are two amazing statistics you may not be familiar with.
1. A recent poll found that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the population.
2. Eventually something will happened in your life that will make you totally 100% dead
The first one is not in the Bible, but the second one is. Like it or not, the fact is you will be 100% dead at some point in the future. We don’t know when but we do know it’s coming, because the Bible says it is appointed unto men once to die.
Knowing that fact should make us carefully consider how we will spend our time between now and the day we become 100% dead. The Bible teaches us that life is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Death and the brevity of life are not particularly pleasant thoughts. But they are matters we need to consider because they give us the perspective we need to redeem the time.
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"If you live long enough you will eventually lose all your marbles. Here’s how.
The Bible, in Psalm 90 speaks of a full life as being 70 to 80 years, which is about what life expectancy runs in much of the world today. Consider the fact that if you live to be 70 years old you will live approximately 3600 weeks. If you are now 50 years old that means you’ve already lived about 2600 of those weeks and you have approximately 1000 more weeks left to go.
To help visualize just what that means, one man went to a toy store and bought 1,000 marbles while in his 50’s. He put them in a large plastic container and every Saturday he took out one marble. He found that as he watched the marbles diminish it helped him stay focused on what was really important.
There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help keep your priorities straight. The truth is, we are all losing our marbles, but those who realize it will be a lot more likely to redeem the time.
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