God’s Time Does Not Move at the Same Pace as My Timex

Friday, June 21, 2013

 

God’s Time Does Not Move at the Same Pace as My Timex

“But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day”

2 Peter 3:8

As followers of Jesus, we are in the process of becoming what we already are. This, for me, is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith. This double truth means that today, because I am a new creation in Christ, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) Today I am the beloved child of God. Today God is delighted with me. Today God’s favor is on me. In terms of Wesleyan theology, this is holiness of heart. The other part of the double truth is holiness of life. Today I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and today I am in the process of making the life of Jesus visible in my mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:11) I begin and end each and every day with the truth that I am the beloved of God, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. However, some days the life of Jesus is more visible in my mortal flesh than others. That’s the mystery.

Much to my consternation, God’s time does not move at the same pace as my Timex. When God wants to make a mighty oak tree, He will take one hundred years, or more. When He wants to make a squash plant, He takes three months. When He transforms a human life to become like Jesus, He takes a lifetime. In our results-oriented, instant-gratification era, that’s hard to take. “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). This truth challenges us two fronts.

First, we want to be patient with ourselves as we trust that God is indeed at work within us. As we patiently wait upon the Lord to fulfill His transformation of our lives, we never want to lose sight of truth number one: today, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Secondly, we don’t want our patience to turn into complacency. The writers of the New Testament never took their eyes of their goal and described their journey toward perfection with words like perseverance, endurance, straining, striving, running and fighting. God is at work within us, but He does not work alone. We are co-laborers with God, building for His Kingdom and fully participating in our own transformation. Our participation is in the form of seeking to know Christ, learning to trust God and choosing God’s way over our way.

The way our world measures time, my window of opportunity to make contributions for the good of society closed last year when I retired. That’s not how God measures time. In God’s economy, the potential for God working through me to achieve His purposes has never been greater. Together with the Apostle Paul, I still see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, and all that I know now is partial and incomplete. But I continue to persevere, endure, strain, strive, run and fight toward that day when I will see everything with perfect clarity and when I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.