It’s About Time.
Sometimes over the years I have sat and pondered over my Bible, various churches I belonged to or visited, and various Christians that I have known or been involved with. I sat and looked at young Christian couples and families in the churches. I sat and watched young men serving as deacons and youth workers. I sat and watched older men serve as elders and church teachers.
And I have seen the most tightly knit of couples, groups and cliques fall apart. Some quietly and discreetly, and some in scandals. I have seen the most unlikeliest of people stay firm friends for decades. I have seen the most vibrant of married couples end up seperating and going their separate ways, and I have seen the most introverted of couples stay happily married for their whole lives and have loving relationships together.
And I didn’t realise it at the time but what I was actually watching was one of God’s great ingredients of “people building” that he has.
Aside from the great work of redemption that Jesus completed on the Cross, the next thing that God uses in building His people up is Time. Time, itself. Time for His Holy Spirit to mould us.
The realisation only came to me a short while ago when I was reading over Psalm ch1. We have all read and heard sermons on the first two verses from the Psalm….
Psalm Ch1 (1) Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; (2)But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
But then I came to verse three and something struck me that I had never noticed before.
….(3)He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season,
It only just struck me then that this is two different statements. There is a period of time between something being planted and a period of time for it to bring forth its fruit. They are two different things. Planting, and bearing fruit.
Every project, or large work that has ever been undertaken has had a plan. The plans all had a beginning, a middle and an end. But what they all shared in common was that they all had a timeline. And God’s plan for us is no different.
God wants us to give Him time to perfect His will in our lives. It’s not just about the times we spend in church, nor the times we read our bibles and pray. But He wants to be given the time to make us grow. To grow between the time of our planting and the time of our blossoming as christians.
And this can sometimes take weeks, months or even years. But God asks us to give Him this time anyway.
Remember the parable of the Prodigal son. We can read about him in Luke Ch15 from v11 onwards.
We read in the account of how the young man took himself off, he let himself down, he picked himself up and he brought himself back. And in the story all this happened in an alotted period of time.
Even with this series of blogs that I write. Although I have only been writing them for 19 months (84 blogs to date) the seed was actually sown in my mind a couple of years before that. I was sitting reading Acts Ch7 for a very different reason. It’s about the stoning of the martyred Apostle called Stephen, and in his final dialogue he used the phrase “these lively oracles” (v38). I paused and thought to myself “wouldn’t that be a great title for someone to start writing a blog with”. Then I never thought about it again.
I can’t remember how it came about, or what made me actually prepare for it (if anything) but I decided that since I hadn’t found any other blogs with the title, that maybe I should start one. And so, I did.
But it was nothing of my planning, my desires, or my motivation. Writing a blog had never, ever been part of my thought process. However, God appears to have had different thoughts about it. And here we are. But that’s just a little bit of my own back-story.
Sometimes I sit and wonder about this age of church history, and I begin to wonder that instead of living within an “outpouring of the Holy Spirit” we have actually reverted back to relive the times of The Judges. Every one of The Judges would not be deemed as a worthy leader. Every one of them would fail God in some way or another. But in every single case God was seen to have His will and His destiny fulfilled for His people.
I know plenty of people whose lives have been upturned, shaken over and rebuilt. It’s very easy to judge these people, but we need to be careful when passing any judgement, for it could very well be that we end up making judgements about the very work of God itself.
And so, for me, the secret has become to sit and wait. Seeds were planted many, many years ago. And their results only came into being many years later.
John Ch12 (24)Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
And this is only a part of my own story. For God has His plans for you too. These plans, whether we like it or not, will include hardships and troubles. For that is how God makes us stronger. And wiser. And more patient.
Those young people that I watched all those years ago. They all have had their troubles. Divorces, deaths, debts, career failures, embittered relationships, health issues.
And I see them now. Some with young families around them. I see young men now grown and standing in pulpits preaching. I see people sitting in their little groups and huddles, drinking coffee and talking and sharing the things of God. I see older couples moving along through life together and enjoying their time with each other. And they are all sitting together and sharing about Jesus. And they are all exhorting one another to get closer to Him.
And that’s what it’s all about!!!
Living our lives and getting to know
Jesus together. And I sometimes wonder if that’s what God really only ever
wanted in the first place.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!
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