A Time for Everything
God's Version of Daylight Saving
I led worship at my church this past Sunday and while I was prepping, I started to think about this whole time change stuff. I personally hate the time change, but the fall back one affects me more than springing forward. The only thing I don’t like about the springtime change is that it’s now once again dark every morning until about seven, and I like to take my pup for walks early so we can get our day started. But daylight lasted until 7:30 last night so I can’t really complain.
(Although does anyone know if we did it? Did we save the daylight?)
As I dug deeper into some articles for my prep about why we move our clocks back and forth, I found out why people blame the government or certain presidents for this weird thing we do twice a year, that some states in the US don’t participate, and that some churches didn’t abide by the time change back when it was first started. I thought But what does God say about time?
My first thought, of course, was Ecclesiastes 3—“A Time for Everything”—you know the verses or the song by the Byrds—there’s a time to be born, a time to die, a time to weep, a time to sow, a time to keep silent, a time for peace, a time for war. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. In verse eleven, the author says God has made everything beautiful in its time.
Acts reminds us that God said, “It is not for us to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” That’s not about our actual time, of course, but that we shouldn’t be concerned with God’s timing of events. He knows the plan and we must simply trust him.
In John 9, Jesus says, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent us. Night is coming, when no one can work.” Aha! Is this God’s version of Daylight Saving? (Get it … saving people during the daylight … before night comes?) But seriously, there is no time to waste for we know not when the night comes in our lives. As my pastor likes to say: today is the day of salvation.
Choose this day whom you will serve and then tell others about it.
(Do you hear that, writers? The time to start your book is now.)
The psalmists remind us that our time is in God’s hands, not our own and that we should number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom while we wait.
Romans 13:11 says, The hour has come for us to wake up from our slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. For as Esther found out, who knows but that we have come to our royal positions for such a time as this. Wake up, dear Christian, there is no time to waste!
So while there is a time for everything and probably time for us to get things done, God has chosen us for such a time as this, a time to wake from our slumber and do the work he’s called us to do and to worship and praise him each and every minute of each and every day while it’s still light enough to do so. We won’t be able to save the daylight once Christ returns. For then, it will be too late. So make the most of your time today by seeking God’s direction and then being faithful to obey. Or by choosing him as your Lord and Savior.
Now is the time to obey the calling God has placed on your life.
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise.” ~ Daniel 2:20–23 NIV
Love this!