The Timeless Foundation for a New Year

Welcome to 2023! As we begin another year it is good for us to consider time. Time is a precious commodity. For each one of us, our time is limited on this earth. And yet every day, we use our valuable time. Assuming we were not born during this last year, all of us had 8,760 hours or 525,600 minutes of time!  And this year we will have the same amount of time to use. But once it is used, we cannot get it back again. We cannot save this asset, but we can redeem it. So as we enter this New Year, it is very important for us to be wise when it comes to time!  

But in order to have the proper foundation, it is vital that we begin our study of time with the Creator of Time, the timeless One!   When time began, God was there. Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John 1:1-2 reveals, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Time as we know it today, began when God created it, when He created the heavens and the earth. God is eternal, without beginning or end.  But all of creation has a beginning. Therefore all creation exists in the context of time!  

Moses, in writing Psalm 90 understood the importance of a biblical worldview of the eternal God as the foundation for how one should view time. The second verse proclaims, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” This theological foundation led Moses to conclude in verse 12, “So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Clearly Moses had a worldview of time that was founded upon the eternal God. This is in contrast to a worldview that gives no thought to God. Psalm 14:1 declares, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.”
 
If God is going to be the foundation for how we view and use our time in 2023, then what will that look like practically?  Here are three biblical principles that provide a start to answering that question. First and most importantly, make sure you are rightly related to the Lord. Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. This man was rightly related to God!  And in the first verse he proclaims, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Today, the Lord dwells in His church!  The church is made up of all those who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation from their sins. These believers are now reconciled to God and in a right relationship with Him because of Jesus Christ.  By God’s grace, the church possesses everlasting life!  Outside of Jesus Christ, there is only eternal destruction.  
 
Second, check your heart to make sure it has a right reliance upon the eternal God. It is possible for believers in Christ to lean upon our own understanding, even though we know the One who has always been!  Prayer ought to be a vital discipline for those in a right relationship with the Lord. Before you make your New Year’s goals and resolutions, spend time in prayer asking the Lord to teach you to number your days. If the Lord gives us 365 days of life in 2023, begin each morning with the prayer that is found in Psalm 90:12.

Finally, may we make and keep right resolutions. May we use our time to do the things our eternal God wants us to be doing!  May our temporal goals and activities be consistent with the character of our eternal God.   The apostle Paul writes about two good goals in 1 Timothy 4:7-8. The first is “bodily exercise”, this good goal involves our temporal physical well being and therefore it has profit in our temporal days. The second is “godliness” this involves spiritual exercise and sweat in conforming our lives to reflect our eternal God and therefore this superior resolution has profit both in this life and in the one to come! Moses, although most likely in excellent physical condition through healthy exercise and good diet was known as “the man of God.” May our days reflect our eternal God as the moments of our days are founded upon the timeless One!

Here you will find encouraging articles to equip you with biblical principles for the practical issues of life.  Read along, be encouraged, and stay updated with the ministries of FBC as we continue to be changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ!