In Part 1, we talked about the seed of money. In Part 2, the seed of purpose. Now, we come to a seed we often take for granted until it slips away. The seed of time.
Time is a seed we often throw away thoughtlessly. We say, “It’s just a few minutes,” and yet we have built entire habits around escaping the work we were meant to do. Procrastination does not always show up as laziness. Sometimes, it disguises itself as busyness or comfort. It shows up in endless scrolling, long calls with no direction, distractions we invite because deep down, we are avoiding something God placed in our hands.
I have had days where I looked back and asked, “What exactly did I do today?” Not because I was idle, but because I was distracted. Numbing. Talking. Browsing. Avoiding. Then night comes, and the sense of purpose is missing, I feel like I wasted my entire day. Surely, you can relate to what I am saying….
Paul cautions us in Ephesians 5:15–16 when he says: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
Time is a seed you do not get back.
If you waste it, you rob your future. Many times, we do not feel the effect immediately. The damage is slow and almost unnoticeable. But then a season comes where you look back and realise you should have planted better.
Think of all the places your time could be building something eternal or something of value. A godly home. A strong marriage. A business that honours God. That course you should have taken. The book you should have finished. The mentoring call you kept postponing. The friendships you wasted your strength on, gallivanting with no eternal value.
Time is currency.
Time is one currency that just slips out of our fingers. It can’t be trapped or saved like money. It spends whether you are intentional or not. However, if you treat time as seed, you start asking different questions like:
What am I doing with the quiet hours?
What legacy am I building in this season?
Who am I giving my best hours to?
What has God asked me to begin that I keep putting off?
Even if it is in small drops, sow your time. Water it. Protect it. Honour it. One day, this time you are living in will become memory. The question is, will it be a seed that produced a harvest or a season you let slip through your fingers?
Scripture says: “to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
That means time is sacred and an extremely important ‘commodity’. Every hour is pregnant with purpose. When it is time to plant, do not eat it in delay or trade it planting for comfort.
Use your time to build something that outlives you.
Even if you are a mom, raising toddlers and all you can give is one page a day, one prayer a day, one lesson a week or mentoring another new mom, sow it. It counts for impactful and intentional living. Whatever you do that makes God known or partners with Him to advance His kingdom is never wasted. It is time well sown, well spent and accounted for, even if you don’t feel like it in the moment.
I will never forget what my friend did after I had my first son. She did not have much to give financially at the time, but she gave something far more lasting. She came over and spent an entire month in our house. She helped with the baby, helped with the home, and gave me room to breathe, recover, and settle into new motherhood.
For a mom who had just put to bed, trust me, this was one of the most important gifts anyone could have ever given me. She sowed the seed of time, hands-on help that far outweighed many of the physical gifts we received. While I will always cherish and appreciate those gifts, what she gave left a lasting imprint on my heart.
Sowing time won’t always look flamboyant or like the most precious of gifts. in fact, many times, it looks like just being a present friend, parent, sibling, a diligent and honest worker or choosing someone else’s need over your own convenience.
There is a window for sowing
Jesus said: “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work.”
(John 9:4). Many times, there is a divine timing for obedience, and when it closes, it is not always easy to get it back. This is why we must be sober about how we spend the hours, days and years we have now. The day will not last forever.
If you are reading this and realising you have not stewarded your time well and regret is creeping in or you feel like too many years have been lost, remember the mercy and goodness of God. He redeems time, restores what the cankerworm has eaten and makes all things new.
Joel 2:25 says “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust..”
Haggai 2:9: The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,” says the Lord of hosts. “And in this place I will give peace,” says the Lord of hosts.
If there is ever a doubt about whether God is capable of redeeming your lost years, read about the man called Job. Job 42:12 says: Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning…
God can mercifully help redeem time in ways you could never imagine. What should have taken years to recover or accomplish, He can do in moments. What was lost, He can multiply. He sees your heart. He knows your longing to do better, to be better, to do more for Him, and He specializes in never writing people off.
He gives second, third, and even tenth chances you did not know were chances. This is not permission to remain careless. It is a reminder to rise again with fresh reverence for what remains.
Finally, the next time you feel that pressure to use it all, spend it now, enjoy it quickly, pause. Ask yourself: Is this seed or harvest? if it is seed, and you eat it, there will be nothing left to multiply, and you, dear one, were not made to live from hand to mouth. You were made to build and to sow. With God, seed time and harvest shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).
Next time you feel like you are empty or have nothing to give, look again, there is seed in your hand. Now ask God what to do with it.
