Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
TIME is in many ways central to our lives, no matter your age or where you live in the world, right? TIME is fascinating and it powerfully controls our lives, doesn’t it? We can’t do anything to speed up time nor to slow it down. No matter the significance of any moment we can’t freeze that moment in time, nor can we stretch delicious moments to last longer, or squeeze painful moments contracting them to a fraction of a second.
As we continue with the apostle Peter writing his second letter, today Peter calls us to consider a very powerful statement: “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 LORD is not slow in keeping His promises, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8,9)
Now that puts a new perspective on TIME, doesn’t it? We know that Peter and most Jewish men of his day were well versed in their Old Testament, so perhaps Peter was thinking about this statement in Psalm 90 “LORD, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting YOU are God! A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” (Ps. 90:1-4) This particular Psalm is unique. Did you know most Bible scholars believe Moses wrote this Psalm so it would certainly be one of the oldest of all the Psalms! Also, as you read Psalm 90, you’ll find some great and powerful truth there. Here’s an example: “Our days may come to 70 years, or eighty if our strength endures, yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass and we fly away…” As you reflect on your life, no matter your current age, are those words a true reflection of your heart and how you see your life?
The powerful words of Psalm 90 continue with this request: “Teach us to number our days, O LORD, that we may gain a heart of wisdom…” I wonder what you think Moses is saying here. Have you ever thought about how you’d live your life differently, how you might realign your life according to different priorities, IF you knew exactly how many more days you have in life before your earthly journey will end in death? That causes us to ask why? Why would we rearrange our life if we knew exactly how many days we have left?Moses ends Psalm 90 with these words, which seem almost like an echo of Peter’s letters: “May the favor of the LORD our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands, O LORD.” Does that sound like the request of someone who doesn’t want to waste time in life? This person wants each day to count and everything they do in each day to have significance. It also sounds like this person would very much like to leave a legacy to their descendants that they will cherish and that reflects a life well lived, do you agree?
Is that how you are living today my “Walking with Jesus” friends? I think that’s what Peter was trying to do with his life, and it seems to me he’s challenging his readers to live their lives with that same frame of mind! I call that living on purpose, living to make a difference!
You see, my friends, I think Peter was haunted by the recurring thought that his life could have been a total waste! If he had never experienced Jesus forgiving Peter for his denials, and restoring Peter into relationship with Jesus, and if Peter had not been commissioned by Jesus to “take care of My sheep” and “feed My sheep” (John 21) I think Peter would have lived a miserable life knowing he’d be most famous for denying his Lord Jesus and spending the rest of his life throwing a fishing net into Lake Galilee, night after night.
But with Jesus any life can have purpose and make an impact in our world and leave a God honoring legacy! Do you agree with that my friends? And do you understand THAT is God’s desire for every person, which is why Peter wrote that famous 9th verse: “The LORD is not slow in keeping His promises, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) Peter is answering the big WHY question so many people have asked for such a long time: “WHY is God allowing our world to continue its slow, downward spiral toward self-destruction? Why doesn’t God just bring everything to an end?”The answer is TIME! God is today giving 8 billion living human beings TIME to consider many very important things. What things you ask, well what about these:
1. TIME to consider what is really important in life, really worth spending TIME doing, and what is wasted time? What do you think about that as you consider your life?
2. TIME to consider who God is and why God created you and what God would like to accomplish IN and THROUGH you if you’d let God be your Lord in life?
3. TIME to consider that this life, no matter how long you live, is a spec of time on the continuum of eternity, endless time! And that of course raises the question… where do you want to spend eternity? And during eternity as you reflect back on what you did with the earthly amount of TIME God gave you, what do you want to remember?
Now those are only three BIG questions you and I have TIME to contemplate in life. But there are many more aren’t there? I wonder if the best use of the next few moments of TIME, for both you and me, would be to first of all ponder those three questions I just gave you, and then add maybe two or three more BIG questions that are worth you and others spending significant amounts of TIME wrestling with to find the best answers? And maybe, just maybe, you’d be willing to send your questions to your extended family and close friends, asking them to join you in wrestling with the most important questions in life!
Oh, I can only imagine what God might do if you’d take my challenge and come up with some BIG questions right now. Who would you send those questions to? How do you think they’d respond? Might it be a very big help to them in making good use of the TIME God has given them in life?
I found a song that might help all of us as we consider how important TIME really is…
Today’s Scripture is 2 Peter 3:8, 9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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