How Does God Tell Time?
Time flies when you are having fun. Time heals all wounds. Time gets a lot of attention here on earth. We restrict our lives by time. For instance, it is 10:14 a.m., on a Wednesday and I am exactly two days and two hours late in writing my Tea Time article. I’m not sure if there will be time for someone to proof it. I feel constrained by the time it has taken me to finally sit down and write the thoughts that have been flooding through my mind about how God tells time since I heard a poem with that title read a couple of weeks ago.
For us humans, time has become a way we define ourselves as a success or a failure.If we can run a race in one millisecond less than the other guy we see ourselvesas more worthy. Both are trained athletes, both are high achievers; but timeis the distinguisher of who is better and who is worse. We have our accountingof time, but God has His. I believe God has given us the gift of time to helpus consider eternity.
Jesus and the angels don’t know the time or the day of Jesus’ secondcoming—which marks the end of time-confined living on earth. Only the Father-Godknows that time. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angelsin heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36). God is thetrue keeper of the ultimate time clock, but he has given us clues of how He tellstime. I believe God’s time clock is man’s heart. We may never unlockthe mystery of God’s timing, but we do know that it is intricately linkedto what is going on in our lives. In the beginning of time man cried out to God.Genesis 4:26, “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that timemen began to call on the name of the Lord.” But by the end of time manhas stopped calling on the name of God and all men curse His name instead. Couldthis be the reason for God’s timing of the plagues on earth when Revelation16:23 describes, “From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred poundseach fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, becausethe plague was so terrible.” God’s horrific and painful judgmentsthat destroy the earth happen in a time when men recognize God is the sourceof the trials they face and curse Him rather than call out to Him for salvation.God’s time for ending the world is when there are no longer any souls willingto be saved by His love and grace. That is the time when God will act on Hispromises to bring all things into the way they were created to be by destroyingwhat can’t be made new and redeeming the rest.
Ultimately the way God tells time is when all the people of this earth have heardthe gospel in their own language and have had an opportunity to accept or rejectJesus’ life, death and resurrection. That seems to be the purpose of time.Paul explained that the purpose of Jesus’ life and death was to bring aboutout salvation to King Agrippa in Acts 26. The king replied to Paul, “Doyou think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paulreplied,“Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who arelistening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains” (Acts26:28-29). God has set a timer for your salvation; it is the day your heart stopsbeating. You have only the time you live on this earth to decide your eternaldestiny.
Do you tell time the way God does? Do you tell time by the condition of yourheart? Do you see the time given you on this earth is to allow you to acceptJesus Christ as your savior and then live out your time here knowing and servingGod? That’s how God tells time. How do you tell time?
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