The Beautiful Timing of Everything
Eccelsiates 3:11 (NIV)
"He has made everything beautiful in it's time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
A truly incredible scripture. A TRUTH that upon reading, seems a little unfathomable in our lives. This scripture points us in a direction of possibilities, not in our ability to know time or even control time; but the possibility that He does. It points us directly at Him and His sovereignty and His goodness and faithfulness to each one of us. The clue with this particular scripture is that He's got things taken care of, His provision extends to everything. And everything, indeed means EVERY THING.
The reality of our lives is that we are always on a clock, work or play or responsibilities; time is ALWAYS an issue. We try not to succumb to the demands of these clocks, but we are only human and we only have a certain number of hours in a day, a certain number of days in a year and a certain number of years of our life; succumbing seems to be inevitable. Until one day we crack open our bible and discover what Jesus had to say about time as it relates to us.
Matthew 6:33-34 (NASB)
"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own."
These are words that speak straight into our spirit and our soul and give us great comfort and assurance that God is definitely steering the ship. We understand this scripture from a very innocent view point, one of simplicity and matter of fact confidence. Applying it to the whole of our lives is another event entirely. See, when we break this scripture down we see the sequence and as we read it, we get it. We agree with what it says and we set out to begin implementation; but wouldn't we know it, TIME gets to us first. We settle for a fast food approach and attempt to apply this insanely good TRUTH as we go, we plug the first part of this scripture, "seek first" into our lives as our lives are running by. We don't want to be left behind on all the things that life has to offer, so we don't TAKE the time we need to earnestly seek His kingdom and His righteousness BEFORE we begin; we add the seeking into the mix. We say a quick prayer and ask God to bless what we've decided to do, even though we've already made the decision without Him. We then wonder why the things we need/want/pray for, aren't added to us like this verse claims. We lose heart and begin to worry about tomorrow and the trouble that it is bringing. This simple, beautiful scripture becomes one of contention with us, until we get over it and attempt to reapply it at a later date.
Proverbs 16:9 (NASB)
"The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps."
When God reveals to us the beauty of the timing in Ecclesiastes 3:11, He is revealing something to us about Himself. Any time we read of God's time table we collectively enter that brain blow mode that our brains cannot compute, with the current parameters of what we know on a physical level about time. The most famous scripture, we are sure to recognize, is found in 2 Peter 3:8 (NIV) "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." The ah-ha moment arrives and if we allow our excitement to overtake us, we might miss verse 9 immediately following, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." And the reveal continues, as we discover that God is outside of time. He set time in motion. He is bending time, He is changing time, He is shifting time and He is orchestrating time, He’s even folding up time based on what we might ask? Based on us. i
Psalm 90:12 (NIV)
"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
All through the bible God sprinkles in clues to help us get to where we need to be. Example after example He demonstrates the powerlessness of time. In the Psalm above, the writer (Moses) is giving us a hot tip about our part in the layout of the world. It is a prayer to God and it examines just who God has been, who He is and our role as well. God is not advocating that we break out the old “day timers” to stay on schedule with our man made time measuring instruments of hourly management, otherwise known as an $85k Rolex watch. Naw Man ! Why waste that much money on something that is related to that monumental event of Adams’ Screw up, just to look fashionable and have an hourly reminder of how much closer to dying you are, at this time of day. Why would God need to teach us to number our days, when the days had already begun the numbering system? “...number our days” the word number means; to weigh out; to allot or constitute officially; also to appoint, or set,
We “civil, responsible“ humans are trained to gage everything in life by how long it takes and how much time we want to put into it. We are born at a certain time and if possible when a person dies the officials and family members want a time stamp for this too. Listen, if we are ever to get in sync with God we have to learn how to live “outside of time.” We are already eternal beings as it says in Proverbs 3:12. The more that we are aware that God isn’t measured by time, the more we realize that we are not to be subjugated to the limits of time either. 🔥God measures EVENTS and Encounters, while man measures the incremental movements of the solar system or tic tock. what’s the big deal then ? If we are going to ever be more like The Father, we have to get our thoughts over to His, and are actions aligned with the way He does things. While we segment and assign time to stay on track with the world around us, God has places that He shows up and it’s not “on OUR time,” but rather it’s His moment of Divine interruptions. 🔥
The Lord Jesus just like His Father has an uncanny sense of timing outside of natural markers. He freaked demons out when confronting them to bring deliverance to people.
Matthew 8:28-29 NET 28.) “When he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him.
29.) They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way. They cried out, “Son of God, leave us alone! Have you come here to torment us before the time?””
Jesus Himself was born according to God’s schedule as the scripture says...
Galatians 4:3-5 TLV 3.) “So also, when we were underage, we were subservient to the basic principles of the world. 4.) But when the fullness of TIME came, God sent out His Son, born of a woman and born under law—
5.) to free those under law, so we might receive adoption as sons.”
God sets time, He doesn’t keep time. we should pay close attention to GOD’S timing because everything is beautiful within that “time frame.” Our goal is going to be learning to move in RYTHM with Him who stands just outside of the restraints of time. For humanity time marches on by the ever present balance of an intricate solar system that was set in orbital motion by mankind‘s sin. But now that we are not the slaves of sin anymore, why are we still holding our lives up to the measurements of time based upon our need to fit into, and function along with a dilapidated planet and mortal time challenged people? Jesus said it best when confronting people who were constantly tapping their feet waiting for Him to come when He said...
Matthew 16:1-4 LEB
“And when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. So he answered and said to them, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather because the sky is red,’ and early in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy weather, because the sky is red and darkening.’ You know how to evaluate correctly the appearance of the sky, but you are not able to evaluate the signs of the times. Also...
Luke 19:41-44 TPT
“When Jesus caught sight of the city, he burst into tears with uncontrollable weeping over Jerusalem, saying, “If only you could recognize that this day peace is within your reach! But you cannot see it. For the day is soon coming when your enemies will surround you, pressing you in on every side, and laying siege to you. They will crush you to pieces, and your children too! And when they leave, your city will be totally destroyed. Since you would not recognize God’s day of visitation, your day of devastation is coming!””
He left them hanging on the premise of trying to interpret the season of His visitation by their reading of weather and the constellations, but to no avail because He’s way outside of that realm. So Are We !