Time is measured by days, weeks or years from one point to another and is calculated by how long it takes for the earth to make a revolution or to complete an orbit around the sun. Time appears to be infinite, but the time we have in this plane of existence definitely is not. No one knows how long it is, but there are a set number of days or years for each of us.
God is not confined by time. For him, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. Time doesn’t matter to him… it doesn’t figure into the equation... and it has little effect on anything in his realm.
Can you imagine? He actually knows what has happened, is happening and will happen. We spend a good majority of our lives concerned with all of this, but God already knows. If time were a line, we are at a point somewhere on that line. The line measures infinitely in front and behind us. We can only see so far behind us and we can only guess at what lies in front of us. God is somewhere outside of this line. He is somewhere so far above it that he can see it in its entirety. In some freaky, otherworldly way, he knows what we will do even before we do it... he knows what will happen before it happens... he could control anything that happens... but in his wisdom and sovereignty chooses not to. Instead, he promises to use it all for our benefit.
Does this mean that our decisions and choices no longer matter? Does this mean that everything is pre-determined? Does this mean we should coast along not worrying about anything because it’s all worked out anyway? That is crazy thinking. Just because God knows how it’s all going to come out does not absolve us of any responsibility for our own actions and decisions. What kind of life would that be? Does it matter that he already knows? The fact that he already knows makes me wonder why on earth he loves me anyway… in spite of all the bad choices and mistakes I’ve made. Knowing that he loves me anyway makes me want to make more good decisions and fewer of the bad.
In the end, there is one decision that matters more than any other… the decision of what to do with his Son... to accept him or reject him. According to God, this choice alone will determine how we spend our ’time’ when the confines of it have been removed… eternity… forever… now that’s a long time.
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.
John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
