Another New Year in God’s Time

Another New Year

In God’s Time

Happy New Year! Once again, due to the season, we become (somewhat painfully, perhaps) aware of the passage of time. This is a purely human experience. God doesn’t operate within time constraints; He is eternal–no beginning or end. In fact, He is the One who created time for human beings. Time is a gift to us from Abba Father.

Actually, in our modern world, people have become rather obsessed with time. Being myself, a “word kinda gal,” I googled “time words” and got several lists. Here are just a few time words:

Time Words

Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Year, Decade, Century, Millennium, Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night, Midnight, Noon, Sunrise, Sunset, Daytime, Daybreak, Dusk, Dawn, Past, Present, Future, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Next, Last, Early, Late, Soon, Now, Already, Yet, Still, Always, Never, New, Old, Sometimes, Often, Rarely, Occasionally, Frequently, Seldom, Eventually, Recently, Immediately, Suddenly, Gradually, Beginning, End … but that’s not the end! There are time phrases and time slang, and on and on … If only our language were the evidence, there would be plenty of proof that humans are obsessed with time.

God’s Time

Reading the biblical accounts of creation explains that God created time for people, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t talk about time. 

Here are a few instances of time reflected in the scriptures:

2 Corinthians 6:2: For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation

Proverbs 21:5: The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

Proverbs 27:1: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

Psalms 31:15: My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.

Psalms 90:12: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

And the quintessential time scriptures–Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account. And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment—wickedness was there, in the place of justice—wickedness was there. I said to myself, “God will bring into judgment  both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.” I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

God Makes All Things New

New is a time word, and since I am cycling back to the idea of “Happy New Year,” let’s think about God’s new creations.. In fact, the first words of the first book of the Bible describe how God began a new thing: “In the beginning God created…” This is mirrored in the first words of John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the Word.”

The Word also says:

Isaiah 43:19:  See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Ephesians 2:15:  by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.

Ephesians 4:24: and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Perhaps the greatest time promise of all comes in Revelation 21–the new heaven and new earth:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death” (1-8).

Abba Father has created a new year, full of possibilities and opportunities. What will you pursue in 2025?

God bless you, and Happy New Year!