Time: God's Gift to You

What an incredible experience it would be to travel back and forth through time. 
Albert Einstein theorized,  "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." What a chaotic kaleidoscopic imagery that conjures up in the mind. 

The truth is that God created time for man in order for him to be able to exist upon this planet. Day and night happens because the earth turns on its axis once every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1005 seconds, and it orbits the Sun once every 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.7676 seconds. 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” Genesis 1:1-5

We have made our clocks to indicate the same time of day after a period of 24 hours. Where we live upon the earth affects the amount of time that we are actually living in daylight. There are 4 minutes a day affected by this complex mathematical anomaly of physics, or discrepancy, and that adds up to an hour every 15 days, or 2 hours every month, or 24 hours in a year. 

The Reality is that Time is Precious

Time...measurable precious time. We can get stressed out and feel driven and rushed because we don't have enough of it. We can be depressed because time moves too slowly, and for many, sleep is a way to not have to be awake to face the pain of another long day. 

We sometimes feel bored and irritated because we have time and cannot find anything fun or meaningful to do with it. Too much time, not enough time, time passing to fast, time passing too slow, borrowed time, stealing time....
 
If we could Travel through Time

There is something very intriguing about the idea of navigating through time at will that tugs at our curiosity. To have a chance to go back and fix a tragic mistake made in the past that has dogged our conscience, or to make right a wrong that has hurt someone deeply is very appealing.

Time Travel to the Past

Many of us have read the HG Wells classic, The Time Machine, and most of us have seen Michael J Fox trilogy, Back to the Future. What if right now, this very moment, you could go back in time to a quiet place.  Where would you choose to go and why? Does an image dance across the mirror of your memory? Is it a certain place? Do you see the face of a particular person? 

Maybe you are at bat in a baseball game and it is the top of the 9th with bases loaded. The count is 3 balls and 2 strikes…the next pitch decides the game and it is your moment...... 

Whatever place you might have gone to in your memory just now had some significant meaning to you, and like a laser beam, it drew you back to reflect. Would you change anything, or bask in the tender moment of a cherished memory one more time?

Time Travel to the Future

It is just as intriguing to contemplate the fascinating wonder of time travel into the future. It would seem incredible and highly tempting to have the option to prepare with utmost care today, for what we are certain is coming our way tomorrow. 

Consider the possibilities of great power and success to put the plan together and with certainly, know that you would pull it off. You would always have the edge. You could fix things so that you would always be assured of that promotion because you would have prepared for every problem with a contingency strategy should one not work out as planned. 

However, the lie of Satan that knowledge and autonomy would give us godlike powers is still the same old lie. Our Sovereign creator has chosen for we who are finite, to have no complete control over anything but our free will. That alone is under our control. Satan's target is our mind, his weapon is to cause us to doubt God, his purpose is to cause us to be out of God's will, and our weapon is Truth...the inspired Word of God. If God thought it best for us to know everything about tomorrow He would have created us to be able to know it. Instead, His Word says,

^"So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble" Matthew 6:34 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Time is in God's Hands Alone

We may not do as well as we think, if we had such a powerful edge on life. Only God is Omniscient and knows all things. It is important to remember that some events have moved through time on a specific schedule to meet us at a certain time and a certain place…..a Quiet Place, where time catches its breath and we are suspended in a moment of decision. Destiny waits in the wings of our choice, as angels gather near in silent anticipation. A crossroads moment in time, and we do not have any way of guaranteeing the outcome…only God knows. 
 
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens ." Ecclesiastes 3:1  

Learning to Live in the Present

Think of it…God has an infinite plan for our lives. A plan that each day leads us down a pathway that will not only impact our own  life, but create the opportunity to meet specific people and thus literally influence the rest of their lives and perhaps their eternal destiny. What an adventure and privilege we have to play such a vital part in unfolding time with the Eternal Sovereign God of the Universe. 

Letting Time Drift By

There is another kind of time travel that is far less dramatic; a kind of time travel that robs us of the wonder and mystery of living life in the present each day. It happens in a micro-second and is brought on by a myriad of internal and external influences. We might be engaged in a spirited conversation with someone, or reading our favorite author, or about to turn into our driveway to be home with our cherished family at the end of a long and tiring day, and it happens….  

The Subtle Drift to the Past

There are times when our focus dims, we are distracted, and we can find ourselves traveling back through time to relive a painful experience in our past. Often when we have gone there, we remember some bad decision, mistake, a sinful act, a broken relationship or a cherished dream that was shattered. Some of the emotions that can tumble forth with an intense kaleidoscope of feelings are guilt, anger, fear and sometimes profound grief. Once back there, life may only  be filled with, “If only I would have….” or  “Why didn’t they just,… or “I wish I could have..."

Reliving the Past

To live in the past drains our concentration so that we cease to have the precious resources that we need to live life in the present. To our partner we can seem far away, to our friends and family we may seem distant and bored, and at work we stray off task and come across with an attitude that says “I just don’t care about my job anymore.” These sentiments may not be true, but as a time traveler we may unintentionally come across that way.

Anxiety about the Future

In the blink of an eye, we can bounce right over the present and into the future and we are suddenly flooded with feelings of stress and anxiety. We try to figure out how we will find the resources to handle the responsibilities of the future. The unknown can feel as if it is sucking the very oxygen from our lungs, which can lead us to have unsubstantiated panic filled thoughts, that can cause us to be tempted to create scenarios in our minds that may never even happen.

Trying to Fix the Future before it Happens 

We can suddenly be plagued with anxious dread filled thoughts that cry out to be answered, “Why don’t they….” or “He just can’t do that….” or “If that happens, we are literally in big trouble, we will lose everything…” It isn’t easy to live with the regrets of yesterday, or the fears we may  have about tomorrow.

Creating Fantasies about the Future

We can also find ourselves time traveling to the future by daydreaming a kind of ideal life that would seemingly solve our problems and make us happy. “If only we had more money…” or “If only I would get that promotion….” or “If only I could meet that special person to love me and take care of me…” Getting stuck in such thinking is understandable, but it is a set-up for disappointment, for reality never quite measures up to any fantasy.

Time... a gift to us from God

The reality is that life is now...today...and whatever regrets we may have that have happened in the past can shackle us, or motivate us to do things differntly today. 

God Regulates and Controls Time

 

^“And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.” Genesis 1:14-19

Let's Give back to God a Gift that keeps on Giving

Time...

^"So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

Reducing your Stress on an ASAP Day

We have all experienced days filled with a multitude of tasks infused with incredible stress and tension laced time pressures.  All too often we find ourselves increasingly weary with a core numbing fatigue. We race to return phone calls and e-mails on our BlackBerry while grabbing dinner from a fast food restaurant for the third time this week. 

Like a long distance runner, we can see the finish line of the race up ahead, but fail to recognize that each and every task that we commit ourselves to has its own separate finish line, time frame, and a deadline. We can be competing in a dozen time pressured, stress producing races at the very same time. Very slowly, if we are not careful, our lives can become over committed and driven to complete a myriad of responsibilities and commitments. The skill of multitasking is a necessity in the business world today.  However, a continuous life of multitasking, isn’t God’s will for our lives.

 
The other day I realized that several times I had spoken to, sent texts, or e-mailed my co-workers, friends, and family the often used acronym: ASAP- As Soon As Possible. I was adding the phrase to my time pressurized responsibilities, “I will get back to you ASAP”, “Let me check on that and get an answer to you ASAP”, or “I will be home ASAP”. We often are aware that we will be late, miss a deadline again, or find ourselves in another disappointing tense moment with our partner for once again being late.

Recently I have been convicted that this is not pleasing to the Lord at all. I began to list out the many tasks and responsibilities that are on my plate every day and found a pattern:  My life was slowly slipping away from me and I was becoming a resource asset for those who have needs or requests for my help or professional advice. I was beginning to live the lives of others and was failing to live my own life.

The Quiet Place can slip away from us so subtly that sadly we don’t even realize that it is gone. The very nature of God is peace.  He desires us to develop a life that has quietness as a norm and not an occasional moment that is grasped desperately during times of stress and overload.

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.” I Thessalonians 4:11

“That we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” I Timothy 2:2

Too many of us find ourselves mirroring the despair of the Patriarch Job as our lives grind down with excessively overloaded schedules and commitments, "I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil."  Job 3:26 

What can we begin to do to quiet our spirit and slow down our lives to regain the inner peace and calmness that God is pleased to see radiate through each of us?

Be Teachable - Learn from God the pathway to Quietness

"Teach me, and I will be quiet” Job 6:24

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, "Come with me to a Quiet Place and get some rest." Mark 6:21

Be Obedient - Ask God to lead you into Quietness

“He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters,” Psalm 23:2

Be Committed - Cultivate an inner Quiet Place

“But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.   
Psalm 131:2

Spiritual maturity is measured by cultivating “a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.”  I Peter 3:4    

In the still moments of personal solitude, we can pause to worship God and renew our strength. Inner peace is often hurriedly prayed for during times of stress like it is quick fix to ease our personal pressures and mounting tensions. There is certainly nothing wrong with praying for God to give inner peace when all is chaotic around us. However, God desires that we display and radiate an inner peace that has already been cultivated from our times in the Quiet Place, so that we can stay calm in the midst of the storm.

“This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: in quietness and trust is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15  (See also Zephaniah 3:17, Mark 4:39, Mark 6:31)

ASAP

There is work to do, deadlines to meet,

You’ve got no time to spare,

But as you hurry and you scurry,

ASAP- Always Say A Prayer

In the midst of family chaos

Quality time is rare.

Do your best, let God do the rest,

ASAP- Always Say A Prayer

It may seem like your worries

Are more than you can bear,

Slow down and take a breath,

ASAP- Always Say A Prayer

God knows how stressful life is,

He wants to ease our cares.

And He will lovingly draw near,

If we Always Say A Prayer.