I can’t believe it’s been 15 months since we packed up all of our belongings, and said goodbye to friends, family, and basically everything we had known for all of our lives, and moved to beautiful Holmes County Ohio. But we have been blessed beyond all measure. God is good all of the time and all the time God is good! So what is our view of God and who He is? I think part of the answer to that question we could answer with the title that I have for this article, TIME. Have we really stopped to think about what all revolves around this word?
The definition of time is: Noun: the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole. Or a point of time as measured in hours and minutes. Verb: plan, schedule, or arrange when something should happen or be done.
So our world as we know it revolves around time right? I am right with a lot of you who have probably used or heard the excuse “well I just didn’t have time.” And yet when I stop and re-examine what I spent my time on, I always find that I had time for what I wanted, or thought I needed to get done. Did you catch that? There were a lot of I ‘s in that sentence! So maybe, could it be that I am a little, or a lot self focused? I am asking myself these questions, and my toes might be sore right now, so pray that I can walk tomorrow! So what should be our Christian view of time? I think we all know that one of the biggest detriments in relationships is the lack of time spent together right? It’s kind of hard to have a good relationship with someone we don’t have time for right? Would that explain why we sometimes struggle with our view of God? Would that explain why sometimes people confess in the office that God feels like He is a 1,000 miles away, or they just don’t know about Him? Now I feel there are other things that play into that, but I feel like this could be one of the things that play into it as well. Do I take time to read His word and pray, or am I to busy, and if I have time will I do those things? Do I take time to have a relationship with my spouse and children? How did Jesus do it when He was here? What if He wouldn’t have had time for the woman at the well? What if He wouldn’t have had time for Zacchaeus, or all the people that He healed? What if He wouldn’t have taken the time to give His life for me….? What if He would have used the excuse “I don’t have time” like I sometimes do? But Jesus was different, He took the time for what was important in life. You see He wanted relationship! He wants that relationship with you! This life is all about relationships, good or bad. But sometimes I feel like it’s just as much the quality of time, as the quantity that’s important. I have heard the saying that time is love, and I believe it. Do you think the time that Jesus spent with the people I mentioned earlier felt like love to them? Do you think they felt listened to, cared about, and understood? I bet they did! Do you think He made a difference in those peoples lives? I think so! It made a difference in the life of Zacchaeus, because it says he vowed to give half of his goods to the poor, and if he had defrauded anyone, he wanted to restore it fourfold! And so if we believe that this world is not my home, I am just passing through, and we believe that everything we have is the Lords, it’s not really mine, and God has blessed it to my care. Isn’t time the same way? God blesses us with time, it’s the only reason I am still here. Can we spend good quality time with God first, our spouse and children, our church, that neighbor down the street? What about the Zacchaeus in our lives? Who might have cheated us of some money, said some bad things behind my back, etc. Ouch! Don’t they need to be shown who Jesus is? Whose life can I impact today if I just take time? What legacy am I going to leave behind? What will people say about me when I am gone? Will they think I never had time for them, or will they think I was very giving of my time? Maybe I should ask that to the people closest to me. The church we attend has a slogan that I like. It says love God, love people, impact the world. Let’s impact the world one person at a time!
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends."//John 15:13.
With love and blessings to all!
Harlan Miller
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