Just the title makes me happy. I do not remember having any time constraints. I am retired, but I still have a daily schedule. It may be nothing more than studying God’s word, writing a devotion, and cleaning my house, but there are still slotted times for each. I love being organized and thinking, when I wake up, “What’s on the agenda for today?” Everything in our lives has a beginning and an ending. We measure our lives by seconds, minutes, and hours. We are obligated to the now, tied to the memories of yesterday, and anxious about the future. Everything about us is marked. Yet, the one who created us in His image has no time constraints! Everything but God has a starting point.
In Genesis 1:1, we see that God created everything, He was before creation. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
We live our lives in a relentless stream of seconds, minutes, and hours. We are bound to the “now,” tethered to the memories of “yesterday,” and anxious about the uncertainties of “tomorrow.” Everything around us is marked by time—decaying, growing, changing, and eventually ending. However, each day I am reminded of a time when there will be no more time. It is hard for me to fathom an eternity with no time constraints.
Abraham called God the everlasting God in Genesis 21:33, “And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.” He wanted a permanent, long-lasting sign of God’s provision. This would be a sign to future generations that he and the people of God served an everlasting, faithful God.
In Psalm 90:1-2, Moses praises God for being an everlasting God. He acknowledges that God created everything and is an eternal dwelling place for those who place their faith in Him. When we are in the middle of a crisis, a season of bad health, we can rest assured that we have a secure, permanent place for us. He is the uncreated Creator!
Psalm 90:1-2 “A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
Day by day, we count time. To us, it seems it is rapidly passing us by. In Psalm 90:4-6, Moses compares our lives to those of grass which grows up and withers away.”For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.” In Revelation 1:8, God declares himself to be the beginning and the end. “He is the great “I am.” “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
We should take great comfort in knowing that God was before anything. He is in control of everything, and He loves us and desires what is best for us. He is a God we can completely trust with our past, present, and future. For those who have given their lives to Him to love, honor, and obey, He is preparing a place for us. Our finite minds cannot fully comprehend our God, but we can trust Him, and one day we will spend eternity with Him. There will be no rushing around to get everything done, no sickness to impair our abilities, no multitasking, no prioritizing our responsibilities, and no more sorrow or pain. The author A.W. Tozer once said, “God dwells in eternity, but time dwells in God.” While we are confined by a ticking clock, God spans all of history at once. He is already in your future, he holds it with the same power and love He showed in your past. He sees our entire lives with one look. Knowing that God is eternal should change how we live today. If you are not right with Him, it should cause fear and unrest. If you are in a right relationship with Him, it should cause you to say Hallelujah! In thinking about all that this timeless God has for us, I say as the apostle Paul said in I Timothy 1:17, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
