What is time? For we humans, time is how we tend to measure our lives. We “make the most of our time,” we “waste time,” we are “just in the nick of time,” etc. We either want to go back in time and change something bad or repeat something pleasurable, or we want to hurry up time so we can start experiencing something anticipated, or we want to slow time down in dread of something looming in the future. The concepts of early, late, and on time all come from the existence of time.
We can assume time has always existed because everything in our physical existence is subject to past, present, and future. However, even time had a beginning. God is eternal in nature, which is different from time. He is the One who created time. He is the One who placed all of His creation into time. God interacts with His creation in time, but He is not bound by time.
What are the implications of this truth? First of all, if we don’t understand the difference between eternal and time, we will assume things about God based on our experience of time. We will put God in our small box of understanding.
When we see something from our perspective, we see it as it is happening now. God sees it as a detail in a story He wrote a long time ago. We tend to view God as a super being who can see into the future. The truth is, His eternal nature encompasses our future as “now.” His presence is already in our future. When He says, “I promise,” it’s not just a hopeful phrase to comfort us. He knows, because He is already there in experience as well as knowledge. Is your mind blown yet?
When we go through a difficult experience, such as a pandemic, our lives are fraught with uncertainty, anxiousness, and fear. “What if…” can become a constant battle in our minds. “What if” is a concept of time. God never asks, “what if.” I love the question, “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?” Because our earthly perspective is rooted in time, it is no wonder that our emotions can feel out of control.
Paul admonished his readers to “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:2, NASB) This “above” perspective takes us mentally out of time and into the eternal. Paul also said, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are not seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:17-18, NASB) “Seen” is a concept rooted in time. If our evidence of God’s faithfulness is strictly taken from the seen, then we are going to struggle with trust.
When we look at the things “which are not seen,” we are literally stepping into an experience of intimate relationship with God. He says to us, “Let Me show you what I see.” When we see what He sees, we are changed. All our fear, worry, and anxiety begin to melt away. There is perfect peace in the presence of I AM!
