“You have time to get right with God.”
This used to be a lie I would feed myself often. Or it was a lie that the enemy fed me. He fed it to me helping me justify the wrongful things I’d do. Because let me tell you, believing the statement “You have time to get right with God,” leads to justifications such as “I can do this just one more time,” “I’ll start facing this issue tomorrow,” “I can afford to put this off right now,” “I can change, I’ll just start later”
Have you been there? Have you ever made these justifications in any part of your life before? Because even if you’ve never been fed the lie that you have time to get right with God, these justifications will lead you to believe it, if only subconsciously.
“You have time to get right with God.”
Yeah, right. Tell me. If you’ve fallen victim to this lie, how’d you end up believing it? Because I honestly think I believed it because it’s what my flesh wanted. I wanted to believe I had time to get things right. Just so I could go and do what I wanted, and then comfort myself for feeling guilty afterward; “I can’t believe I did that, I’m such a horrible person. Starting tomorrow I’ll do differently, I’ll do better.”
But don’t you see? I don’t know if I have time to get right with God. Neither do you. Anything could happen! Jesus could return right now as you’re reading this post. Then guess what? You didn’t have time. Honestly though, not knowing whether there is time or not is a huge blessing!
If we did end up knowing we had time to get right with God. If we knew when Jesus was returning, there are two things we would end up doing as result. First, we’d stop everything and just sit in continual worship. No longer would we do the work he’s called us to do. We would stop our work for Him. Know why? Because it’s only natural to get excited about something we’ve anticipated for.
If we knew without a doubt that Jesus was coming tomorrow at, say, dinnertime, we wouldn’t be preparing dinner! We’d run outside looking to the sky jumping, yelling, praising, and worshipping the fact that we see Jesus in the clouds. Dinner and those we are to shine His light on will be forgotten. That’s not good. We are to work for Him, always. We are to share the good news with everyone, never to forget those who don’t believe or have never heard His Word.
The other thing that could result from us knowing when Jesus returns is our lack of worship and praise. What I mean is, and this bad but likely, we’d go indulging in our sinfulness. This is what results when we believe, “I have time to get right with God.” We keep on sinning because we do have time. We’ll cave into temptation more. Feed our flesh more. Then when we notice it’s getting closer to the date of His return, we turn to God. Right at the end, we’ll turn to God.
See how much of a blessing it is that we don’t know? That we don’t know when we’ll die and stand before God, or when Jesus will return. Because otherwise we’d be lax, either only staying in worship or living it up in sin city.
We have a calling. God has given us a mission. We have work to do here. Worship is important. But we need to let it fill us and equip us to go out afterward and reflect His light; to be a good and faithful servant. Yes, we’ll still fail and sin at times. But instead of pushing off repentance for a later day, we need to do it now and use the situation as a stepping stone, learning from it and changing for the better.
Because our death can be quick and sudden. Jesus’ coming can be quick and sudden. There is no indication that we will have the opportunity for last-minute repentance or bargaining. There is no indication that we can push off tomorrow what we should do today, right now.
Don’t believe that lie, “you have time to get right with God.” The only time is now. The choice you make right now may be your last. We don’t know the day or hour of His coming. And the choice we make will determine our eternal destiny.
So, if you are like how I was. If you believe the lie you have time to get right with God, pray. Come to Him in prayer, giving or re-giving your life to Him. Ask God to shine truth into those lies that can be so easy to believe. Give to Him what you’ve been holding off giving Him. There is no time like the present.
"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. - Matthew 24:36-44
Featured Image by Lucian Alexe on Unsplash
Scriptural Musings with Booferchick 
I ended up believing it little by little, Amanda. “I can eat ice cream and cookies after every meal.” “Burgers and fries twice a week won’t hurt me either.” Lie. The scales say I am 20 pounds overweight. I got this way little by little—stress eating my way through pandemic fueled uncertainty. Was it a sin? Got me, yes.
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It’s easy to put off what we know is right just so we can indulge in what we want. It’s a power struggle really. But now is the best time to change it. We should never put off tomorrow what we can do right now. Blessings are sent your way, David!!
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