Our whole existence revolves around time. It’s behind our busyness, our drive to perform, our difficulty focusing. Almost all stress is time-induced. The things we stress over would be less stressful if we had more time. Everything is in a hurry. We’re constantly afraid to run out of time.
Just read the story of Lazarus in John 11. Do you see how time seemed scarce to Martha . . . even Mary? But never for Jesus. Martha wanted him to perform. Mary was just sad. Both were disappointed in the moment because Jesus didn’t quickly run there and heal their brother. But boy, were they joyful later on . . . when Jesus showed up and raised Lazarus from the dead!
Could that be true of all us Jesus-followers? We lack the faith it takes to wait? We stress ourselves because things don’t happen like we want and certainly not as fast as we want. So we let the "crush" of time steal our joy.
Check out Romans 8:37-39 . . .
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are secure in Jesus . . . “neither the present nor the future” is able to separate us from His love. We only have today! He always has more for us . . . never less. We have nothing to prove and nothing to lose. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid,” said Jesus in John 14:27. Notice all those verbs are present tense? Like today. Right now. Do we believe that?
If we do, we can rise above this tangle of duties, to-do’s, projects and properties, we can receive the joy of our salvation! But to do so, we must trust God with all the outcomes and their timing.
God never runs out of time. He’s never in a hurry. Things happen in the timing that maximizes His glory, but that timing is only for Him to know. We must trust Him with the timing of everything. We must take our eye off the clock and put it on God and on living God’s command to love Him and to love one another.
