– Feyi Bab-Oke
What is time?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future, regarded as a whole. Time is also identified by the English Study Page as “the thing that is measured as seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, etc.”
Many of us have an unhealthy relationship with time; we waste it. We’re never on top of it, but we often wish it would speed up, and then at other times we pray that it would slow down (hello to my fellow ‘93 babies).
We value time so much we give up on some activities and involvements once we think it’s taking too much of our time. Time can seem to be on your side today and then seemingly work against you tomorrow. With all we know about our love-hate relationship with time, it’s interesting to observe the importance of time in the Bible and how indispensable and essential it is when it comes to spiritual growth and maturity.
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
-Mark 4:26-28 (NIV)
My wife and I went out to eat one day at a local brunch spot. I ordered a breakfast quesadilla, and she decided to deviate from her customary chicken & waffles and opted for the French toast.
The restaurant wasn’t particularly busy, so I wasn’t too surprised by how quickly our food came. We were excited and began to eat, but our enjoyment was interrupted as my wife realized that her French toast was undercooked. The cook, in his or her desire to get our order out, neglected to ensure that the meal was well cooked before serving it.
This experience serves to illustrate one of the many reasons why time is so important when it comes to growth, maturity and complete furnishing.
The Bible calls us God’s masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10). And time allows God to completely finish His work in us. In the Kingdom of God, nobody skips steps, including God himself. Seeing He exists outside of time, He is never in a hurry.
God is committed to the task of developing His nature in us until we are free of every flaw and blemish and He will not stop until He is done, no matter how long it takes.
In Jeremiah 18, the Bible tells the story of a potter who was making a jar out of clay. Verse 4 tells us that the potter saw there was a flaw, and so he started all over and made it into another jar “as it seemed right for him to do”. The Bible tells us that God is the potter, and we are the clay, and one of God’s major defining characteristics is a holy or perfect nature (Matthew 5:48).
Like any perfectionist, God cannot observe a flaw and proceed to complete the work; he would rather start over than put His divine stamp of approval on an unfinished product. Because whether it’s an artwork or a meal, building or clothes, nobody likes unfinished products.
An unfinished product not only disappoints the customers but calls the integrity of the manufacturer into question. The mature believer is God’s desired product, and we play an integral role in God’s plan for the redemption of all creation. As a matter of fact, Romans 8:19 tells us that all creation is anticipating the manifestation of God’s final product (us), for our maturity to be revealed.
God is not in the business of disappointments, and neither are we. We must wait for as long as it takes for God to form and fashion us completely, because the fate of the world and our master’s reputation depends on it.
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
-James 1:4 (NKJV)
To my brunch story once more. My wife decided to send the French toast back, and she decided to order a pancake instead because the undercooked French toast had turned her off of French toasts entirely, and we both couldn’t help but wonder if we could dare to trust the quality of anything coming from the local brunch spot’s kitchen.
Our response to the undercooked meal is similar to the response of people in the world when they encounter immature, unfinished believers. In the work of becoming everything that God wants us to be, it takes great patience on His end, but it also necessitates patient partnership on our end.
Romans 5:4 says that “patient endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope”. Without this much needed element of time, we will never develop the essential characteristics that are worthy of the calling of Jesus Christ.
One of those essential characteristics is faith. Faith is only developed over time, and as we daily relinquish our lives and freewill into the divine hands of our eternal Master who operates at His own pace and on an unlimited timeline, we demonstrate true faith and confidence that pleases Him (Hebrews 11:6).
It is from this place that we can declare boldly as Paul did, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, NIV).
God wants to finish the work more than we can imagine, and He will. It’s all in due time. Just let Him have his way for as long as it takes. It will be worth it at the very end of the road. Trust me, there are few things more discomforting than sending back an undercooked meal.