January 2nd, 2024
This week marks the start of a brand-new year. If you’re like me, that will mean at least one new beginning, whether that be a new Bible-reading plan, a new planner, or a new workout routine. There’s just something about the beginning of a year that makes you want to start things fresh. That’s why I love starting the year with a fast! Our church does an annual 21-day corporate fast to begin every new year. There’s no better time to refocus our hearts and minds on God and hear what He has to say for the year to come!
As I’ve been praying about the fast and my year, the value of time has been on my heart. Several years ago, I was taught in an Economics class that time is our most valuable resource. This was a secular class, but the impact of that truth has a powerful spiritual application. Time is completely non-renewable, meaning it’s something you can’t get back once it’s been spent. Think about how carefully we guard our other resources! We lock our homes and cars, save our money, and put our valuables in safes. We get insurance for the things that cost the most and take greater care with expensive items. Human nature is to protect things to the degree we esteem them valuable.
Well, there is nothing more valuable than your time. How well do you protect it? We tend to think more about how we’ve spent our time at the end of the year, which is a cultural time of reflection. However, we should think about how we spend our time all year round!
2 Peter 3:8 says that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” While time is valuable to us, God is outside of it! One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 57:15 which says,
‘For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’
God lives inside eternity and outside of time. He created everything, including time. That’s a concept that’s arguably impossible for us to grasp, but it’s true. Equally as difficult to comprehend is the truth that we were created as eternal beings. As sobering as it is to think about, our lives on earth are just a breath! If a day is a thousand years to God, then an 80-year lifespan is less than 2 hours. Now, I realize that verse from 2 Peter is figurative and meant to illustrate the immensity of God but think about how short our lives are in comparison to eternity! Isaiah 40:6-8 says,
‘All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.’
James 1:9-11 echoes this truth, surely with the passage from Isaiah in mind. It says,
“Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.”
James 4:13-15 says,
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”’
Now, all of this isn’t meant to make you feel insignificant, but to bring to light the value of the time you have on this earth. He has plans and purposes for every single one of us that we get to step into. God placed eternity in the heart of every human being (Ecclesiastes 3:11). It’s why no person in any place or time could be satisfied apart from knowing Him. “Eternity” is in our hearts because we were created for Him. Every soul will live in either heaven or hell, for eternity. Do we spend our time with the weight of that truth in mind? Every person we come across, at the grocery store, at work, or at the coffee shop, will either live with God or apart from Him, forever. God has something for all of us to do to take part in the expansion of His Kingdom. We have the opportunity every, single day to share the truth of His Word with people that so desperately need it!
1 Peter 1:22-25 says,
‘Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’
God’s word, that remains forever, is the gospel. It’s the good news preached to us that birthed life in our hearts. The passion to share Jesus with those that don’t know Him has to come from love. It’s not religious or argumentative. It’s not an ideology we’re trying to spread. It’s love for the souls that God created and the people Jesus died to save.
Colossians 4:5 says to “[make] the best use of the time.”
Ephesians 5:15-17 reminds us to,
“Look carefully…how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”
Why? It’s because the world we live in now is fleeting, but we are eternal beings. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says,
“Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
If we feel unsatisfied as we start this new year, it’s probably because we haven’t spent our time as if it’s our most valuable resource. We are eternal beings because we were created in the image of God. 1 John 2:17 says,
“The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
You aren’t meant to live unsatisfied. Jesus came that you would have life and life abundantly (John 10:10). Living with the awareness of eternity in our hearts isn’t a burden. It’s actually the only thing that will fulfill us. It’s the only way we’ll live with joy! You were created to live like Jesus. You were created to live supernaturally. The miraculous isn’t meant to be uncommon in the body of Christ. His Kingdom is at hand, and we are its citizens! Miracles, signs, wonders, and salvation are evidence of that kingdom. They are evidence of our hometown! We weren’t made for earth; we were made for heaven and that’s meant to start even now! As you begin this new year, I pray that you begin it with a new fire to see His kingdom come. It’s what we were made for!
As I’ve been praying about the fast and my year, the value of time has been on my heart. Several years ago, I was taught in an Economics class that time is our most valuable resource. This was a secular class, but the impact of that truth has a powerful spiritual application. Time is completely non-renewable, meaning it’s something you can’t get back once it’s been spent. Think about how carefully we guard our other resources! We lock our homes and cars, save our money, and put our valuables in safes. We get insurance for the things that cost the most and take greater care with expensive items. Human nature is to protect things to the degree we esteem them valuable.
Well, there is nothing more valuable than your time. How well do you protect it? We tend to think more about how we’ve spent our time at the end of the year, which is a cultural time of reflection. However, we should think about how we spend our time all year round!
2 Peter 3:8 says that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” While time is valuable to us, God is outside of it! One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 57:15 which says,
‘For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’
God lives inside eternity and outside of time. He created everything, including time. That’s a concept that’s arguably impossible for us to grasp, but it’s true. Equally as difficult to comprehend is the truth that we were created as eternal beings. As sobering as it is to think about, our lives on earth are just a breath! If a day is a thousand years to God, then an 80-year lifespan is less than 2 hours. Now, I realize that verse from 2 Peter is figurative and meant to illustrate the immensity of God but think about how short our lives are in comparison to eternity! Isaiah 40:6-8 says,
‘All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.’
James 1:9-11 echoes this truth, surely with the passage from Isaiah in mind. It says,
“Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.”
James 4:13-15 says,
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”’
Now, all of this isn’t meant to make you feel insignificant, but to bring to light the value of the time you have on this earth. He has plans and purposes for every single one of us that we get to step into. God placed eternity in the heart of every human being (Ecclesiastes 3:11). It’s why no person in any place or time could be satisfied apart from knowing Him. “Eternity” is in our hearts because we were created for Him. Every soul will live in either heaven or hell, for eternity. Do we spend our time with the weight of that truth in mind? Every person we come across, at the grocery store, at work, or at the coffee shop, will either live with God or apart from Him, forever. God has something for all of us to do to take part in the expansion of His Kingdom. We have the opportunity every, single day to share the truth of His Word with people that so desperately need it!
1 Peter 1:22-25 says,
‘Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’
God’s word, that remains forever, is the gospel. It’s the good news preached to us that birthed life in our hearts. The passion to share Jesus with those that don’t know Him has to come from love. It’s not religious or argumentative. It’s not an ideology we’re trying to spread. It’s love for the souls that God created and the people Jesus died to save.
Colossians 4:5 says to “[make] the best use of the time.”
Ephesians 5:15-17 reminds us to,
“Look carefully…how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”
Why? It’s because the world we live in now is fleeting, but we are eternal beings. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says,
“Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
If we feel unsatisfied as we start this new year, it’s probably because we haven’t spent our time as if it’s our most valuable resource. We are eternal beings because we were created in the image of God. 1 John 2:17 says,
“The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
You aren’t meant to live unsatisfied. Jesus came that you would have life and life abundantly (John 10:10). Living with the awareness of eternity in our hearts isn’t a burden. It’s actually the only thing that will fulfill us. It’s the only way we’ll live with joy! You were created to live like Jesus. You were created to live supernaturally. The miraculous isn’t meant to be uncommon in the body of Christ. His Kingdom is at hand, and we are its citizens! Miracles, signs, wonders, and salvation are evidence of that kingdom. They are evidence of our hometown! We weren’t made for earth; we were made for heaven and that’s meant to start even now! As you begin this new year, I pray that you begin it with a new fire to see His kingdom come. It’s what we were made for!
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