David writes: My times are in your hand (Ps. 31:15). To him it was a big consolation, the assurance that during all the times of his life he was in God’s hand – in the times during which he was healthy and prosperous, but also in his biggest disappointments and anxiety. He was sure of this consolation because he had committed his life into God’s hand: Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God (Ps. 31:5).
In the Bible we read about the “time” when something happened, or in the “time” when a certain person lived. For example: As it was in the time of Noah so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. Everybody kept on eating and drinking, and men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat and the flood came and killed them all (Luke 17:26, 27). That was before the dating as we know it. Today we use dates. We say, for example, “it happened in 1914”.
We can speak of the “times” in our lives: the time when I was small, when I went to school, the time when we raised our children and the time when we played with our grandchildren. Then there are also the “times” of joy, but also of suffering and grief. We may one day speak of the time when we were under lockdown restrictions. That time when we couldn’t even attend the funeral of a loved one, the time when our loved ones died “prematurely”. We have a wonderful consolation, because if we have committed our lives into God’s hand we can also say: “My times are in God’s hand.” It applies to what happened, what is happening now and also what will happen in future. To commit yourself into the hand of God means that you trust Him fully and surrender your life to his control. We have the promise: Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear (Is. 59:1).
When the Bible speaks of, for example, “the time of Noah”, it does not only refer to Noah, but also to what happened to other people or to nature during that time. Just as it is today when we speak of “the time” of Hitler, we don’t only think about him, but also about the millions of people who died on battlefields and in the gas chambers.
The words “my times” not only apply to me, but also to everything belonging to “my times”: the place where I grow up, the people around me. Also the things that may cause me great anxiety, things that are wrong in our country, disease and the death of loved ones, drought and floods. If we are children of God, we are not at the mercy of fate or Evil. Even if we suffer or things around us are bad, we may still believe that everything is in God’s hand. When we know that, we cannot refrain from offering our hands in service to God. We must make the best use of every opportunity: … making the best use of the time (Eph. 5:16). We are saved by grace for a reason: ... in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do (Eph. 2:8-10). We must continue Jesus’ work on earth. For his work we cannot spare our hands.
God adopted a human form. He was with us in Jesus our Lord. As human being Jesus was also in God’s hand. But He did not spare his own hands. For us He allowed that his hands be pierced by nails. By his hands He hung on the cross. That He did, so that we, during our longest time, i.e. eternity, can be with Him.
Our heavenly Father, thank you that we may always be in your care, during all the times of our lives. Amen
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