Shift Your Thinking For A Deeper FaithSample

Day Seven

God’s Timeline

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:11

As humans, we exist in two timelines. First is the natural timeline, which gives us an average of seventy-seven years from birth to death; the other timeline is the eternal one. As Christians, we are simply living in the process of God’s perfect eternity—in, of course, an imperfect world. This provides a valuable paradigm to live from, given we do away with looking at life in years and start embracing that we are already in eternity as our current reality.

For example, a while back, I was talking with a friend who was in the middle of a ministry split. He was understandably hurt, angry, and confused. He lamented that the long-standing relationships he had with his friends and ministry partners were over.

I asked him, “As it relates to the future outcome of the relationship with your friends, whose timeline are you living in right now, God’s or yours?” Whenever we believe something is in peril, we have a choice to see it in a natural or spiritual timeline. To see the conflict in our own natural timeline will invent a web of confusion about what will be, how it will affect us, when the trial will end, how bad it will get . . . and rarely is the outcome close to what we invent. 

To see things from this natural place and timeline is a “low faith” disposition that will retain or intensify pessimism toward healing and increase bitterness toward others. But to see the relationship as already healed before it actually becomes healed embraces God’s timeline of perfection and healing in all things.

Living in God’s perfect timeline is a divine place of faith and maturity—knowing that although the relationships are not healed at the current time, they are already healed in God’s time through the blood of his Son, the omnipotence of his promise, and the completion in eternity. Living life in this posture of faith will position us to bring a peaceful, optimistic, and caring “us” into the healing process at any time. 

The freedom of living eternally minded removes the pressure and constraints of time and creates an endless, limitless space to work within. It’s God’s space and it’s a great place to be. 

What unpleasant circumstances can you release from your timeline into God’s perfect timeline? How will that affect your thoughts and actions related to those circumstances?