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God has all the time in the world, but we only have today
The eternality of God is one of his attributes that the Scriptures affirm.
Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Psalm 90:2)
Jesus said,
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13).
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last. Jesus is saying from A to Z I am God.
Wayne Grudem captures the eternality of God in one succinct sentence.
God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time.1
This should bring great comfort to us. The Bible means what it says when it records: āHe who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it”Ā God has all the time in the world to make you what he wants you to be.
But while God has all the time in the world, we do not.
The Bible declares:
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away (James 4:14 NKJV)
When I was aĀ child and fighting a cold, my mother would plug in the vaporizer; hot steam would come up from this tank by my bedside. But if you unplugged the unit, the vapor was goneāinstantly. Thatās how God wants us to look at life. Here today ā gone tomorrow.
When we understand the brevity of our life we will guard against two dangers: procrastination and overconfident planning (James 4:13-16). While these seem to be opposite extremes, they actually have the same base thought. Both perspectives arrogantly assume they have more tomorrows. God wants us to remember we are only assured of today.
For he says . . . Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).
Sometimes we get these roles confused. We want God to act right now. But we would like to put off for another day, what God wants us to do right now. We need to remember: God has all the time in the world, but we only have today.
Footnotes:
1. Grudem, W. A. (1994). Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (168). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.