Timing

ohn 7:6,8 Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come."

John 7:23, 24 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well?

24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment."

John 8:14, 20 Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

Luke 9: 51, 62 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Matt 8:21-2221 Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."

22 And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

God's timing

 

Jesus knew himself well.  He knew where He came from and where He was going.  With this confidence He knew the timing as well.  He put himself in harm's way, speaking the truth though it agitated men, because He knew His destiny and put Himself fully in the hands of the Father to carry out HIs purpose on earth.  

In John 7:6 Jesus said our time is always here.  Does that mean that God doesn't have a plan for our lives, the way He did for Jesus.  Proverbs 16:9 says The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. And later in in Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. No He knows...

I think the time we have everyday is to follow Jesus.  As in Luke 9:62, it is not fitting for one to work and look back.  A commitment to Jesus is an "all in" kind of deal.  We can't keep earthly matters from standing in our way.  Turning back to earthly things and trying to have both is having neither.  In Luke 9:24 Jesus says whoever wants to save his life will lose it.  All is temporary but His word, which will  never pass away (Luke 21:33).  

We read in Matt 8: 21 about the man who wants to follow but has something to go do first.  From an earthly perspective, the thing he needs to do is pretty important.  When death in a family occurs, it becomes a priority, no matter what else is going on, to spend time making arrangements, grieving a loss.  Yet Jesus says that following HIm is more important than burying your own father.  That is a radical statement.  And I don't think that He's saying it's wrong to attend to funeral arrangements.  The translation of this  verse in the NLT is clear.  "Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead."  Let those who are spiritually turned off deal with the matters of them who aren't alive in Me.  Instead, if you have found life in Me, follow the priorities of my purpose in you? 

So how about you?  Are you spiritually alive but living in a dead place, spending all your time acting dead?  Jesus said you have all the time in the world, to follow HIm...not to spend time on things that will perish.  Everyday when you wake up, you need to let go of the life you are trying to hold onto and choose instead to put Him first, with HIs priorities of your time.  Then like HIm you will know where you came from (death) and where you are going (life).