OBEY GOD OR THE CLOCK

Concerning time, I must be heavenly minded, not earthly minded. My daily life involves the clock; and the more I bind myself to it, the less I follow the heavenly schedule. The only clock Jesus paid any attention to was the clock of His Father's will (John 9:4). This must be my clock. If I am rigid with a schedule, worried because I have wasted time, anxious for a certain moment to arrive, distressed because I have missed my plane, I am not yielding to my Father's timetable. I must press on to the place where "time shall be no more." If I am occupied with time, it means something is amiss in my spirit. The person who is absolutely at peace pays no attention to time.

Jesus said, "My time is not yet come: but your time is always ready" (John 7:6, KJV). Jesus had no schedule or program; He just did His Father's will, as it was impressed upon Him; but His friends were schedule bound.

We are constantly faced with an alternative: shall I obey God or the clock? To do the latter is to be locked in to earthiness, a quality Jesus never manifested. Idleness is not a matter here, for God's will never means idleness. When I deeply abide in Jesus, time will cease to be, just as really as if I were already in heaven.

Let us try to be less earthy and more heavenly in our attitudes. Worldliness is being earthbound, a substitution of the heavenly for the here and now. We cannot free ourselves physically from these restraints, but we must do so spiritually. The Bible tells us that we must live in the heavenlies, where Christ now is "seated at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1). This means a substitution of heaven's ways for earth's ways.

"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom" Psalm 90: 12.