This is not your time

James 4 :13-17 N I V

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Since retiring I awake every morning thinking what will I do with my time and my life today?

When I was working I knew that at least eight hours of my day would be spent doing something related to my work and I really didn’t give the rest of it much thought.

I have never been one to plan my time I would get up every morning and plunge right into the day going where it led and doing what I needed or wanted to do with the time that I had.

But after leaving work it seems to be more important to me that I plan my day and what I will do with my time.

When I was a child I used to dream of my future and what I would become when I grew up as I am sure was true with many of you.

And most people today still have plans for their time today and what they will do with their life tomorrow or the next day or a year from now the next several years from now.

You see most humans look at time the seconds the minutes the hours the days the years as being their time life lived belongs to them. It’s my body it’s my time it’s my life I’ll live it the way I want to.

But for me this morning was different I awoke hearing that other voice in me whom I believe is the Holy Spirit saying to me this is not your time this is not your life to live. It is Gods time and you are living His life and your future time is in his hands at His command.

I understand more clearly now what the Apostle Paul meant when he said,

“Philippians 1:21-26 (NIV)

 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;  but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.  Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,  so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

In the light of the Holy Scriptures it very evident that it is not our time it is not our body it’s not our life we live. But rather its Gods time its Gods body and its Gods life that we are supposed to be living. It is Gods will that we are supposed to be yielding ourselves to fulfill.

 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

The conclusion then of this is that we are not here to live by a time schedule the way we plan and any ways we please our bodies do not belong to us to treat them as we will. But we are here by Gods divine plan to live according to His will an exact image of Jesus for eternity.

We do not have the power to change our image from the likeness of sin to the likeness of Jesus. We do not have power to control our own destiny.

That is why God sent His Holy Spirit to teach us guide us and mold us into the perfect image and likeness of Jesus. That is why we must hear His voice and follow His guidance because He is life to us and without Him we would have no life.

John 3:16-17

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

God loves us He sent Jesus to prove His love for us Jesus is the example that we should follow if we are to have eternal life.

If we cannot believe and follow Jesus into the perfect will of God then there is nothing else God can do or will do to save us.