Pathways Press.com

Written by Ken Boa, a contemporary author and founder of Reflections Ministry.

Think back to a time when you went through a particularly trying set of circumstances. Maybe it was military boot camp, several months of a particularly distasteful summer job, or a school math course that induced fear and trepidation. Or perhaps it was a more emotionally stressful time: struggling with a wayward child, the death of a best friend, or the failure of a marriage. Whatever time in your life you are recalling, you probably remember that minutes seemed like hours, hours dragged like days, and days became more like months. The seemingly glacier-like movement of time only exaggerated the pain, discomfort, or evil you were experiencing. You might have wondered how you could possibly make it even one more day. Looking back now on that difficult period of your life, it’s likely that you have a completely different perspective. What amounted to the torturous passage of minutes, you now view as a single block of time. Things that once loomed like Mount Everest now only appear as part of life’s landscape—in context not nearly so overwhelming. When the perspective of distance allows us to view a period of days or weeks as a single unit—as a “day” in our life rather than a series of days—we are close to seeing life as God sees it…God does not measure time as we do—He sees all of history at once. There is no past or future with God—everything is “present.” While we view experiences as a string of occurrences—usually a long, tedious string—they are a single reality to Him…Whenever you feel caught in a slough of slow-moving, sinister events, remember two things: First, the day will come when you will see it differently; second, God sees it differently already. The evil that seems to dominate our age has already been dominated by God’s design for time—and for eternity.

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. [2 Peter 3:8-9]