Time Travel

What do we all have, but can never gain more of? What is incredibly precious and limited, but wasted so haphazardly?

It's the most valuable thing we can give. It's the most valuable thing we can receive. It is the most precious thing we can ever give somebody.

It's time.

"There is an appointed time for everything,

a time for every affair under the heavens.

A time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to uproot;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to tear down, and a time to build up;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance...

A time to keep, and a time to lose"

-Ecclesiastes 3:1-6

God is eternal. That's one of those phrases that we repeat so often it tends to lose meaning. What is eternal? Is it simply a very very very very very very very very very infinitely long time? Eternal is a hard concept to understand because it is so far beyond our comprehension. We are a people of time. We measure our lives in days, weeks, months, seasons, years, decades, daylights, sunsets, midnights, cups of coffee....

But God is beyond all that. He doesn't need time. He was before time. He will be after time.

God is eternal. Eternal is not just "forever" but "always" - unchanging. 

We forget that sometimes. Perhaps even often. We say "Okay, God...give me a sign....................how about now?.......now?" 

Since God is unchanging, there is no difference between giving that sign after two seconds or two decades. We expect God to follow our schedules, and in doing so we limit God (suffice to say, this is not a good thing to do). 

It's not wrong to ask God for things. In fact, petition is one of the four types of prayer (along with thanksgiving, praise, and contrition). But, we have to realize that God works in his own time. Jacob waited seven years to marry Rachel, and then another seven when he was tricked into marrying Leah. God promised him a wife before he even left home, but she didn't just show up on his doorstep five minutes later. 

So, I suppose my "lesson" for today is trust. Know that God has a plan for everything, but we can't expect everything to happen at once. Sometimes we have to take a leap of faith (or a big step) and know God is with us the whole way. 

Don't sit around for God to answer your prayers. If Jacob had waited until he was 100% sure, he would have never found his wife. Pray, and trust that your prayer will be answered. Then get out there and take a risk. 

God knows what he's doing. He's been doing this for a long...time.