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I
struggle with time. Because I am a doer, a “Martha” at heart, I like to stay busy.
Idleness is not in my DNA. As a kid, I was always into something, looking for something
to do and pretty much driving my mother bonkers. She used to send me outside to
find my dad who would find something for me to do. I think she secretly hoped
that I would grow out of it, but I didn’t. I am still always on the go.
Unfortunately, this desire to keep busy can also be a stumbling block for me.
Because I like to stay busy I usually have a pretty full schedule, and about
three to four minutes after my eyes open my mind begins to race with all the day’s
events that are before me. By the time I have made my coffee I have worked out
what seems to be a timely schedule in my head and off I go to accomplish it. (I
am a morning person too!)
But
lately it seems like instead of having peace in my day I have turmoil. I get
behind that person who decides that thirty five in a fifty five is a great
idea, and they are enjoying themselves immensely. Or, there just happens to be
a fender bender causing a twenty mile backup on 440! As a result, I begin to
have turmoil in my heart because my day is not going as planned. Because I am a
doer and I like to stay busy, it also means that I do not like to be late. I
like to be either early by a few minutes or right on time. On time keeps me on
schedule. Late puts my whole day behind. When days like this happen I begin to
get frustrated, then I begin to fret, and the next thing you know I am speeding
past the slow moving vehicle yelling at them in my mind for their inability to
go the speed limit. I become short with people, frustrated at the littlest of
things, and I end up taking my frustrations out on those whom God has called me
to love. I fall into sin, not only in my thoughts, but in my attitudes and
sometimes, even in my words. This then causes me to have no peace whatsoever because
I am convicted by my God who lives in me and sees all of me.
This
has been an area of my life that I know He wants me to surrender to Him. Not
just the sinfulness that I walk in, but the surrender of my time, and my need
to control it. This need to be on time, scheduled and doing a Martha pace
through life is not how He wants me living. It is not that being busy is wrong,
or that being a doer is wrong, it is the attitude in the midst of all that
doing that He is focused on, it is my attitude in the midst of my day that
displeases Him and He wants to change me and free me from the troubled heart
that steals my joy and robs my peace with Him. He wants me to surrender to Him.
“For everything
there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV
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Time is
a simple word but one that impacts us in a very complex way. We know that time
is given to us to work and do all that God has prepared for us to do.
(Ephesians 2:10) Time reminds us how short our lives really are, and sometimes
it reminds us how long it can be too. Time rules our
lives. We live by the clock;
we eat, sleep, drink and work by the clock. Time is not always our friend. For
me, time is a stumbling block, an obstacle that trips me up, a snare that leads
me to sin against my God. It’s not that I am too busy, for there seems to
always be time to do what is before me. It is not that I am managing it
unwisely or wasting it, (well, sometimes I am wasting it), time troubles me because
I am trying to control it. Time, my friends, is not ours. It never was and it
never will be. The only One who can control time is the One who created it. I
cannot make time. I cannot stop time. I cannot change time. God alone is
Creator and Keeper of time, and all our times is in His hands.
Solomon
tells us that for everything there is a season. Everything in heaven and under
heaven has a purpose and a time. If you read Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 you will see
that everything will happen when it’s supposed to happen. If we believe God is
Creator of time, then we must also believe that He is Keeper of time. We are
reminded through the scriptures that there is an appointed time for every
matter under heaven. Think about the word every. Every means all; not some, not
a few, but all- all means all and that’s all all means. Everything that happens
to us, every moment of our lives is appointed. God knew of it, He saw it, and
He allowed it to come to pass before the foundations of the world. God is
sovereign, and if God is sovereign, then He must be sovereign- even over all
the matters of our daily lives. Nothing happens to us that has not first passed
through the hands of our Father in heaven. That slow moving car in front of me,
God allowed it. The two cash registers that
are open at Wal-Mart during the
busiest time of day, God allowed it. That meeting that ran late, God not only
allowed it; but He knew it was going to run late even before I got there. Time
is not ours, it is His.
“He
has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s
heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to
the end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
The bible
tells us that there is an appointed time for every matter under heaven, and
that our God has made everything beautiful in its time. Just like the seasons
of the year have an appointed time, so does every single thing under heaven. We
know when winter will come, and when spring and summer will arrive. We know
when they should come, but we cannot predict them. They do not come on the same
day every single year. Sometimes winter comes early, bringing in the cold winds
from the north. Sometimes summer overtakes spring and fall is late. But no
matter the timing, the truth that we can depend on is that they do come. Just
like events and matters in our lives. They will come, but only God, our Creator
and Keeper knows when.
“Let
not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1
My
heart, which is the seat of my thoughts and my will, become troubled because I
am trying to control something that is out of my control; I am trying to
control time. I am trying to change time, make time, and be on time. Jesus
tells us not be troubled. Believe in God. If we believe that God is sovereign,
if we believe that He is powerful enough to raise Jesus from the grave, then
why do we not believe that He is able to control our time as well? When we
become hurried, troubled, distressed about events in our lives we are clearly
not walking in faith. If we believe God is sovereign, then we must trust that
He is sovereign too.
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Believe
God. Believe that He is sovereign. If we believe that God appoints every matter
under heaven, then we have nothing to be troubled about. My mind becomes
disturbed, restless and my thoughts begin to cause an inward commotion within
me. My mind begins to race and I begin to get worked up about every little
thing that comes my way. Believe God. Believe that He has everything under
control. Isaiah 43:1-2 tells us that God is with us. That no matter what
overtakes us, comes against us, He is there. He formed us, He called us, and He
has redeemed us. He is our Creator and Keeper of time.
Nothing
under heaven is an accident or a coincidence. For everything there is a season
and a time for every matter under heaven. Don’t panic. Don’t worry, and don’t
speed! Trust that God who raised Jesus from the dead, who called light to shine
out of the darkness, who created all that we see, smell, taste, feel and hear
out of nothing is just as much in control of your time now as He was then.
Trust that God, the Creator and Keeper of time, can and will make all things
beautiful. We have a whole eternity to live, so why are we in such a hurry in this
one? Amen.
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