Orange Moon Thursday, October 7, 2021 "The River of Forever"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"The River of Forever"   

     

     God operates by a different clock than we do.  Or perhaps we might say, He operates by no clock at all.

   "The eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).

    The Psalmist asked the Lord "How long?" on fifteen different occasions.  No record of an answer exists in the Psalms.  Indeed, while God necessarily works in time, He redemptively acts and coordinates all things according to eternity.  This means His ways will puzzle, perplex, and even bewilder us at times regarding our lives, the lives of others, and His working in the world.  Indeed, the question "How long?" directed toward our Heavenly Father will always be answered, "Just long enough."  We will be nevertheless be challenged to wonder, and tempted to perceive that somehow, some way, God's timepiece has malfunctioned.

   "My times are in Thy hand" (Psalm 31:15).

   The issue involves context.  Our's involves time.  God's involves forever.  Fixing some problems in the context of time might throw a monkey wrench into His coordinating all things according to the perfection of forever to come. This our Lord will not do.  This He cannot do.  "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31).  Our Father must act in accordance with His character, His eternal purpose, and our best interests (as defined by His infinite wisdom).  "Thou art good, and doest good" (Psalm 119:68).  This means that God hand will sometimes seem inexorably slow, disconcertingly late, and perhaps even bewilderingly inactive.  Such perceptions are never actually the case.  Rather than slow, God's work is perfectly timed.  Rather than late, God's work is perfectly on time.  And rather than inactive, God's works always move in time with His perfect purpose.  Our clock may contradict, which raises the question: time or eternity?  Which will capture our primary focus?

    "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times" (Isaiah 33:6).

   We cannot and should not seek to escape the earthly clock wherein we must presently function and organize our lives.  For the believer, however, it cannot be first and foremost.  We are Heavenly people who already "have eternal life" (I John 5:13).  Eternity must transcend earthly time by a vast measure in our emphasis and understanding.  As the prophet declared, such "wisdom and knowledge" stabilize our hearts at all times, and particularly, when God's eternity-guided hand challenges our understanding of how He works.  His way is indeed perfect.  Such purity of purpose and action can only be understood, however, when we realize our Lord's current ever flows according to the glorious river of forever rather than the murky stream of time.

"Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us."

(Psalm 62:8)

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

(II Corinthians 4:17-18)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

(Proverbs 6:6-8).

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