The Mystery of Time - Part 2
The last time that I thought about time and what it means to us was when I was a young engineer. It seemed like there was never time to accomplish anything. There always seemed to be the next project that demanded your attention. As a result I became a lot like many of my contemporaries in that I had a blanket "I don't have enough time for that!" Now that I look back I can see that a lot of time was just wasted doing things that were not important. To a technical person, the fact that there is something to be accomplished that is not being done puts a huge amount of stress on our mental facilities. The time that the Lord gives us is all that we have. We must make the most of it or at the last we will be groaning that we should have done so and so. Remorse about what we have done and should do is best illustrated by the young man in Proverbs who didn't listen about staying away from an adulterous woman:
[Prov 5:11] And you groan at your *final end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;
[12] And you say, “How I have hated instruction!
And my heart spurned reproof!
[13] “I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!
[14] “I was almost in utter ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
In the Lord's Word we read where there are specific times when we will be occupied with activities:
[Eccl 3:1] There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every *event under heaven—
[2] A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
[3] A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
[4] A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
[5] A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
[6] A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
[7] A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
[8] A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
The wise Man or Woman will make sure that the activities that they do are not only pleasing to the Lord but are the activities that He wants us to pursue at that time. It is always a good thing to pepper our actions by inquiring from Him what our priorities should be:
[Prov 3:5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
[6] In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Is He interested in what we are doing? Is He interested in what we are concerned about? I think the answer to that is yes.
[Matt 6:25] “For this reason I say to you, *do not be worried about your *life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?[26] “Look at the birds of the *air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?[27] “And who of you by being worried can add a single *hour to his *life?[28] “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,[29] yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.[30] “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith![31] “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’[32] “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.[33] “But *seek first *His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be *added to you.
[34] “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will *care for itself. *Each day has enough trouble of its own.
- LW
[Prov 5:11] And you groan at your *final end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;
[12] And you say, “How I have hated instruction!
And my heart spurned reproof!
[13] “I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!
[14] “I was almost in utter ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
In the Lord's Word we read where there are specific times when we will be occupied with activities:
[Eccl 3:1] There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every *event under heaven—
[2] A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
[3] A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
[4] A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
[5] A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
[6] A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
[7] A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
[8] A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
The wise Man or Woman will make sure that the activities that they do are not only pleasing to the Lord but are the activities that He wants us to pursue at that time. It is always a good thing to pepper our actions by inquiring from Him what our priorities should be:
[Prov 3:5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
[6] In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Is He interested in what we are doing? Is He interested in what we are concerned about? I think the answer to that is yes.
[Matt 6:25] “For this reason I say to you, *do not be worried about your *life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?[26] “Look at the birds of the *air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?[27] “And who of you by being worried can add a single *hour to his *life?[28] “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,[29] yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.[30] “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith![31] “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’[32] “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.[33] “But *seek first *His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be *added to you.
[34] “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will *care for itself. *Each day has enough trouble of its own.
- LW