Title: Man’s Time and God’s Time
Man’s Time and God’s Time can be rephrased as My Time and God’s Time. Today’s main topic is time. Time is very closely related to our happiness and unhappiness. Some curse time because they feel time flies mercilessly. For example, people in a hospital with incurable disease or those who taking an important exam eagerly desire to have more time. On the contrary, there are other people who wish time flies even faster. At times, time stands on our side but at another time, time stands against us.
Bible tells us that there are 3 types of time :-
1) ‘time in the calendar’
This is the astronomical time that being defined by the rotation and revolution of the earth.
2) ‘time in living creature’
This is the time that is given to each living creature. Therefore, it can be said, ‘My Time.’
- ‘God’s time’
God’s time has no limitation and no end. Therefore, for God, there is no growing old and there is no death (Heb 1:12).
Based on this understanding, we can understand what salvation is. In general, theology defines salvation as without dying. To be precise salvation can be defined as moving from our time to God’s time. What it meant is we stop living our time but live God’s time. Salvation can only be obtained today and right now. It’s not that we are going to heaven after that but salvation can be obtained right now, today (Rom 13:11).
What does it mean practically to live God’s time?
- We should admit that time is the gift from God
We didn’t create time, but we are given time by God. Therefore, we should admit and understand that time doesn’t belong to us. Then, we should answer God’s calling immediately.
When God called Abraham or when Jesus called His disciples, the Bible explains to us that they answered and followed at once, without any hesitation (Gen 12:1-4; Mat 4:18-22). However, we ourselves make a lot of excuses to God saying; “it is not the right time for me to do such thing,” Isn’t it? God is concerned about how we live our only life. Jesus only lived 33 years on earth. However, during His life on earth, His only concern was God’s work and He followed His calling at once. Therefore, Jesus was able to say, ‘It is finished’ when He ended His life on earth. The statement of ‘it is finished’ meant Jesus lived His life according to God’s will and fulfilled everything God had entrusted with Him. Therefore, ‘it is finished’ is the proclamation of victory.
- We shouldn’t say, “I don’t have time”
Men steal God’s time so much that God has appointed the Lord’s Day and allowed 6 days for us and dedicate the 7th day to be used for Him. However, if we do not even give God the service time that is less than 2 hours, how foolish we are? It is like we trying to become criminals and robbers of God’s time. In Mat 25: 41-46, Jesus gave a parable of how God’s judgment will be like. In this parable, the king declared the verdict that you didn’t give me any food to eat or drink. Then, the people complained when did you say to us you were hungry and thirsty? If we knew and heard it, we would have fed you with food and drinks. This actually teaches us that people were so busy that although there was a message from God, they were not able to hear it. In order to live in God’s time, we should lose our time. We should discern how God wants us to use His time. Prioritize God’s plan first before our own plan.
- We shouldn’t say, “I have left certain days”
There is no standard or rule that applies to know how many days we have left. This decision is entirely up to us. To the people who think like this, Jesus gave another parable (Luk 12:16-21).
In this parable, a man was very successful; he saved plenty of money for his remaining years. He can be relaxed and enjoy the rest of his life and he believes that he has left some years to live. If this young person did not assume that he can live 10 or 20 more years, he wouldn’t have stolen the crops and store in his barns. His action is based on the assumption that he only have certain years to live. However God appeared to him on that night and said there is no more days left for you. This parable should really awaken us today.
All types of sports games have a time frame or a break. However our life has no time out or break. Like this person, when he achieved everything and he started thinking let’s do things for God it may be too late. We shouldn’t assume that there are many days we have left in the future, I will do this first before we come to God. We should do the will of God today. Today is important because we don’t know whether we are going to have that future or not. How we live today matters.
When Covid 19 is gone, I will do this and do that for God. When my business gets better, I will do this and do that for God. How many times we say this? How many times have we postponed doing the will of God? Let’s delay and postpone no more, let’s stop living our time and start living God’s time. If we have the faith that the time we have is God’s time, no matter how difficult it is, I believe God will fill you and fill this time with grace and mercy and God will make this time more productive and successful. God’s time has no end; we will not come to an end that is eternal life that is salvation today. In the beginning I say if we start living God’s time, salvation can be achieved today. Because God’s time has no end, if we are living God’s time, we will have no end. Amen!
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 