God in Time-Part 2

God controls space and time. He controls life and death. Jesus illustrated this control by raising people from the dead, such as Lazarus.

The control of time and space is illustrated by the following:

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day? Then Isaiah said, This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, no but let the shadow go backward ten degrees. So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz (2 Kings 20:8-11). And this is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken: Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down (Isaiah 38:7,8).

We limit what we believe God can do by our experiences and our imagination.

Hezekiah wanted a sign that God’s promise to heal him was true and so asked what seemed to him to be an impossible request.

I sympathize with the young man or woman professional, especially with those who have spouses and children that are surrounded with the demands of time-this is particularly true of women trying to balance a career with family responsibilities. There is the responsibility of doing your job well, taking care of the children and the spouse as well. There is shopping to be done, clothes to be cleaned, food to be cooked and constant, unending, never ceasing demands.

We try to balance all the demands on our lives and perhaps on our best days we keep everything balanced. Then there are those other days. Something gets shorted. Work does not get done, a child’s needs go unmet, we have eaten at McDonald’s for the fourth time this week, and spouse just ran out of clean socks. We experience guilt despite the fact that we have given 100% but unfortunately the demands require 120% of us. No personal time. Then there is the guilt.

So what do we do?

The concept found in the Bible is that we give to God the first fruits. Yes, if we place God at the end of the line, rest assured at the end of the day there are no fruits left. Does God need our first fruits? Probably not. Do we need to give our first fruits? Probably yes.
For instance begin your day (or for you night owls-late in the day) set aside time for yourself and God. You and God can share a personal time. Read Scripture, pray, meditate, sing a worship song-do something that involves only you and God. These are the first fruits.

As we give these first fruits to God, these fruits of relationship, your time will be multiplied back to you just like the loaves and fishes that the little boy brought to the apostles. As God becomes involved in the time of your life, it will be multiplied in your life.

Will you get everything done? Probably not. But you may now instead get the important things done.

Personally, I spent much time in my life doing the unimportant. It is better to do the right things, the important things. Some things must be left undone and we trust to God.

I have spent substantial time in my life building “houses” that God did not need to be built. “If God build not the house, they labor in vain who built it.” Well, I have been like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration. “Hey, I have got a great idea, let’s build three tabernacles to honor Jesus, Moses and Elijah.” I know the feeling and went out to get the temple materials and the laborers to build what God does not need to have built.

Instead of building, I should have been listening. But listening involves doing nothing but listening and does not have the appearance of action.

For those oppressed by the burden of too many demands and too little time, give of the first fruits. Offer the sacrifice by giving of some personal time between you and God.

The demands of the job, spouse and the household must stand back like tigers circling you, and you like Daniel are to meet God in the lion’s den of your life. This is the life of faith. You do not meet the incessant demands, but you turn for a few minutes, your eyes to God and ask that he meet your demands and those demands that encircle you. The demands will not eat you. They will still be there in the morning and so will you. God will do a miracle, and who knows, even the sun may back up for you and you get an extra hour in your day. I know, I could sure use one.