Vainly I searched my desk for my pocket calendar. I needed it to determine which days to submit for pay for working at my reserve center. If I don’t look at my calendar on a daily basis there is a good chance I will miss an appointment. I’m somewhat bound by a schedule and dependent upon the information I write down on little squares.
Calendars are helpful but they also are problematic. Because I measure my time in units it is easy to expect God to do the same, to intervene or act according to my needs or plans. Such expectations can easily set me up for disappointment. Can’t He see my frustration? Why won’t He act when I need Him to act! If I am impatient I may proceed prematurely and therefore be out of step or miss His will. My clock-ticking existence misunderstands His transcendent timelessness.
Meditation
2 Peter 3:8—Do not forget this fact, dear friends: With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day.
Psalm 39:5—You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You.
If a day is like a thousand years what’s a minute worth? We have limited faculties and therefore flawed perception. Our omnipotent God sees everything with no misunderstanding. He is not a Master of whim or divagating Deity (one who rambles or digresses). So here is the challenge. Will I trust that He will perfectly intervene in my life and circumstances, as well as the lives of others, when the time is appropriate? If the answer is “yes,” I find agreement with Solomon’s words, “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue . . . In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:1,9). God will speak when the timeless moment is right. If the answer is “no,” than I obviously think I know better than God when He should act. Hmmm! That’s rather presumptuous and foolish. Isn’t it better that I rely on His sovereign love, knowing that He cares about my days? Hallelujah!
Inspiration
God’s dates are not man’s. God seems to pay no attention to our calendars; He has a calendar of His own in which He suddenly surprises a man in the midst of his days. Leave room for God. We expect God only on special days, in particular meetings; that is not God’s way.—Oswald Chambers in Notes On Isaiah
