Calendar

​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--Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
Psalm 39:5--You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor. Selah
 
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. 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, “The reflections of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord . . . A man’s heart plans his way, 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
The biblical God is not governed by time because He is the Lord of time. God is in time in the sense that He is sovereignly present in all the events of time, confronting His people with His warnings and His promises. However, this is not the same as saying that God is caught up in time or governed by it. Humankind cannot bind Him to special sacred time; rather, He encounters humankind in each moment of their temporal existence, offering each new day as an opportunity for judgment in the event of their willful stubbornness or for redemption in the event of their repentance.--Holman Bible Dictionary
 
©2004 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)