Thursday, October 4, 2018

Understanding Time from God's Perspective

The Lord is not slack concerning His Promise (2 Peter 3:9)

In this Christian walk, we often get bent out of shape concerning God's timing.  We may have been praying for a situation and become discouraged when it does not happen in a given time-frame.  What if I tell you that God is not concerned with "timing".  
Our understanding of time is a man made social construct. As we know in the Bible, God deals in Eternity.  Eternity is defined as a "state to which time has no application, timelessness".

We invent words like "early" "late" etc. to make sense of the chronological passage of time.  Unfortunately, we often put these same limitations on God, trying to fit Him into our little box.  We may want Him to manifest an answer to prayer in what we deem as a proper "time frame".  However, remember that one day is to God a thousand years and a thousand years one day.  (2 Peter 3:8)

Cultural Differences

 To understand time, let us look to history.  According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the national US standard time was adopted in 1883 because the railroads needed to work by common timetables.  Prior to this adoption cities kept their own local versions of "time" and did not want to use a standard clock.  Some cities such as Cincinnati wanted to use nature to keep time, relying on the Sun, Moon, and Stars.

In Western society (U.S. and Europe)  time is seen as fixed and unchanging, however in other parts of the world like Latin America and Asia time is more fluid and adaptive.  Their meaning of early and late are vastly different than ours, and they are more flexible concerning time.  You may a business meeting scheduled at 3 pm in some countries and it may be acceptable or even expected to show up hours later.  In America you will be considered unprofessional but in other countries they do not bat an eye.  

So let us not get so caught up in "time" especially when it comes to the answer to our prayers.  Let us keep the Faith and wait on the Lord.  




https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-time-is-a-social-construct-164139110/


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