Alva Review-Courier -

Many of us who have been Christians a long time recognize this title to a beautiful hymn sung for many years. The first line goes like this, “Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord.” What a powerful string of words these are, as they call us to be talking, through prayer, to a powerful God who surrounds us with His love, guidance and strength. Spending time alone with the Lord can not only help us in all situations, but it can bring us into a more intimate relationship with our God.

That said, spending time with the Lord will benefit us in many ways. One way is that our lives will become a beacon to the world, as people will see the Lord, in the way that we live our lives. That church is what the scripture calls living a righteous and holy life. I Peter 1:14-16 says, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Prayer every day to the Lord keeps us in tune with God as we reflect on the way we have lived each day and ask for strength to continue to live that holy life.

Another benefit of spending time with the Lord in prayer is that we ask for, and receive, His guidance. He delivers guidance for our lives through the reading of His word (Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God”). The Holy Spirit’s responsibility is the teaching of that word in our hearts, in I John 2:27 says, “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him.”

The third thing is that by spending time with the Lord in prayer, living the holy life, and searching for his guidance, we will gain eternal life and live with, and serve, him forever! I’m not sure anyone could properly describe or explain “Eternity.” We describe things in terms of time, and when someone says that “eternity will be a long time,” that doesn’t come close to explaining it. I mean a lot of time is not even a long time, because eternity has no time.

When someone asks me to describe eternity, I tell them to think about this scenario. Man has been on earth for approximately seven thousand years. If the Lord comes today, and then creates a new Heaven and a new Earth (Revelation 21:1), and everyone was placed back on earth for another lifetime, we could repeat this scenario until you or I could be everyone who has ever lived.

One lifetime you could be George Washington, the next seven thousand year cycle of the universe, you could be Moses and so on and so forth until you have played the part of everyone on earth since the beginning of time. There have been approximately 88 billion people on earth since Jesus the Christ came the first time two thousand years ago. Please remember that there were approximately five thousand years in history before Jesus came two thousand years ago. So let’s do some conservative simple math here, 88 billion people, times 7000 year cycles of earth, equals 616,000,000,000,000 years. And I tell people that eternity wouldn’t even be getting started.

The point that I want to get across to the reader, is that eternity is a very long time and if we want to spend our eternity in the most wonderful place serving the most awesome God, we need to take time and be holy, speaking oft with our Lord!!! And the congregation says, “AMEN!!!”

We invite you to join us at College Hill Church of Christ, 1102 College Blvd, every Sunday morning at 10:30am for worship or follow us on Facebook at College Hill Church of Christ Alva Oklahoma as we stream our worship service every Sunday. We are a fellowship of believers that follow God’s Word and love all who worship with us!