Have you ever wondered why The Eternal (timeless) God decided to put us – temporarily – in a world full of time constraints? Ecclesiastes reinforces the fact that our lives are a series of changes and seasons when it says, “there is a time for every purpose under heaven.”
We are sometimes caught in the “in-between.” We’re either waiting for a prayer to be answered or fretting about something we have or haven’t done in the past. In Isaiah 43:18, God calls us to, “Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past.” He reminds us that He is often about to do something new. Change comes with time.
Worry is usually concern about the future. “What-ifs” and worst-case scenarios in our minds coax us into passivity or increase our anxiety. God tells us not to be anxious about what is to come.
God isn’t against planning and counting the cost before we act but He wants us to trust Him as we follow His Spirit and live in the present, embracing the changes that come. Esther was born for “such a time as this” and we are born in our time for God’s purposes. God recommends that we redeem our time in the day of evil. Some would say we are in that day now.
This little poem/prayer captures this idea of change and seeking God’s face:
I’m drawn to the simple,
Drawn to the plain,
Drawn to the things,
That all stay the same.
There’s so much to do,
And time marches on,
The season is come,
And then it is gone.
Slamming on brakes,
Life forces your hand,
Makes you its slave,
With unfair demands.
Give me the staying,
The praying, the leading.
Help me use time, God,
To go where You’re heading.
Nan Robertson
~Christ Fellowship