Dear all at IPC,

I was recently up in the Isle of Harris at a conference and there was a time of prayer at the start of the day. An older man began his prayer by saying “Today Lord is a day that has been given by you, a morning which we will never have again, a day which we will not be able to redeem”. 

I can’t remember anything else about the prayer but I was suddenly struck by the force of truth that our time on earth is finite. A certain number of days, hours and minutes and then no more. On our gravestones there is a date of our birth and a date of our death. 

The bible begins and ends talking about time.

Genesis 1:1, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’. The creation story is full of references to time. Right at the very end of the bible in Revelation 22:20, John writes, ‘He who testifies to these things says “surely, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.’ 

God is the author of time, he is the Ancient of Days.  God is above time, he is eternal, but he has made himself known in time. ‘At just the right time Christ Jesus came into the world to die for the ungodly.’ (Romans 5:6) ‘When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’ (Galatians 4:4-5).  God is sovereign over time, he is working all things out in accordance with his will. (Eph 1:11). There is a season and a time for everything (Eccl 3:1). He ‘declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done’. (Isa 46:10) God is the one who ‘changes time and seasons’. (Daniel 2:20)

We experience time sequentially; there is the past, the present and the future. But God knows the beginning from the ending. He is eternal in his being, wisdom and power (Shorter Catechism Q4)  – there is no change in God. He does not age!

When you were little do you remember that feeling of wanting time to speed up?  Now in middle age with my children the age they are, I want time to slow down. I am told that in old age people want to wind the clock back. None of those things are possible. We are not in control of time,  and so it is vital in life to understand how we must live in the time we’ve been given.

We receive time as a gift from God – it’s why the prayer of the friend at the conference is so striking and so helpful. Day by day, morning by morning, we remind ourselves with the Psalmist ‘that our times are in his hands’. It means that we don’t need to give way to fear but recognise that God has given us time to use and enjoy.

The book of Proverbs is full of advice on investing time wisely and not wasting it. (3:2,9:11, 28:16, 31:12, 10:27, 15:15). Psalm 90 famously prays, ‘Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom’. (Psalm 90:12) The finality of life is taught again and again in Scripture. Jesus tells us that none of us can add a single hour to our life (Matthew 6:27, Luke 12:25). Time is precious and limited.

How can we number our days wisely?

Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:15-16, ‘Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.’ The old King James Version talks about redeeming the time. It’s the sense of there being so much we can spend our time on and so much we can waste time on that we should deliberately and carefully use our time. It’s the bible version of a time management course. Colossians 4:5 tells us ‘to make the best use of time’.

We will also see that time is a gift from God to be enjoyed. God has made everything beautiful in its time (Eccl 3:11). The years, months, days, hours and minutes are given to us by God. We have no idea how many we will have. In comparison to God, our lives are like a few handbreadths (Psalm 39:5-6), we’re like the morning mist, the dew on the grass and so we are to enjoy the time that God gives us. Seeing time as an opportunity to glorify God and enjoy him, the good gifts he has given us are to be enjoyed.

We also live in the light of eternity. I find thinking about how time will work in the new creation difficult to understand, and yet it will be glorious.  We will never have that feeling of wanting more time, and that fear of things passing too quickly will be removed. We will never just ‘run out of time’. The dread of times to come will be removed. 

We are told more in scripture regarding time in hell, where it will be tortuously long, where there will be no end to suffering.

Living in the light of both these realities will change how we live, how we act and how we speak. Time is very precious and limited and so I suggest that you begin your days with the prayer of my friend:

‘Today Lord is a day that has been given by you, a morning which we will never have again, a day which we will not be able to redeem’.

Your Minister and Friend,