The Gift of Time
By Sheila Martinez

It is amazing to me when a new, totally unseen point of view is revealed to me.  It isn’t so much that I never had a thought about the idea I am now seeing, but that a ‘suddenly’ happens -- and you are being made aware of depths and heights, and the arenas within -- areas that make the definitions you have always had seem as though they were chalk drawings being washed away by the rain. Drawings to be replaced with a mural of such excellence that your eyes are not able to catch all of the wondrous detail – there is so much to see and the ability to absorb it all with the normal ‘seeing’ is just not enough. 

A revealing of a multi-faceted viewpoint, a viewpoint only God can give.

Most of us have been told not to waste our time at some point in our life, whether by a parent, a teacher … or a friend, trying to warn us about someone who might be a bad influence in our lives. We all have heard good advice that we did not take heed of.  We often give these words of counsel little attention, because we are operating within our own machinery, and our own self-contained library of definitions, some good, some not.  Some that we are even unaware of.  Many of them passed on to us from who knows where, who knows when…and from what source. Some true, but many of them half-truths and many outright lies.

The Word of God says in 2 Peter 3:8-9:
‘Do not forget this one thing, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’
He has given us time.  Time that is defined within His purposes, not by a stopwatch, time that can be adjusted as He sees fit.  Lengthening or shortening as the need and purpose requires. 

I came across a little verse that said something like this:
Time is necessary -- because we wouldn’t want it to happen all at once.
As I read it my heart opened and I saw time as a great gift from God.  He has done all of these things for our good.  He has allowed time to be – for us to have the space to heal, the time for the process of restoration to take place, the room to awaken to the hope of the promise.  He is patiently waiting for the recovery plan to be worked through -- so He can have children that are complete, lacking nothing, and full of the life He promised to give. 
God’s hand was, and is, stretching out all the destruction that the enemy released upon God’s children and He is demanding that the enemy release everything that belongs to God and restore.  He is demanding that the poison come out – and the recovery of the land - our ‘humis’, our dirt – we are made from the dust of the earth -- be given back, little by little, as the Word says in Deuteronomy 7.

Deuteronomy 7:21- 23
‘Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.  But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed.’

He is watching and waiting to see who is ready for His touch today.  Waiting to see if we can handle the pressure of the next treatment in the recovery plan of the Great Physician. 

This recovery plan is in motion because we couldn’t take it if it happened all at once.  After all, we are clay – made from dust.

Psalm 103:13-17 states:
‘As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children …’
Isn’t it a wonder?  It seems that the counsel we have from the past is true after all - Time can heal all things.

Thank God for His time and purposes under the heavens.

If you would like to comment on this article, please send an email to:sheila@vine3.org