Hurry Life
Good Morning,
It is not uncommon for us to fight to accomplish our goals and dreams and to do so RIGHT NOW. It seems that everything we want, we want NOW!!
For example, we want to marry before we are “TOO OLD” (whenever that is). In short, each of us needs to seek the Lord about his own life and development. Moses stayed in Pharaoh’s court until he was forty years of age before he got married. Forty years later, God called him into the ministry. Most of the Apostles were single when they were called to follow the Lord. At the time when Paul was ordained and sent out by the Holy Spirit to do the first work of foreign missions, he was not married. This pattern seems to go against our modern "rules."
Luke 3:23 “And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,”
This verse is the only biblical reference as to our Lord’s age or the length of His ministry. Most people count three Passovers in the Gospels, thus considering His ministry to be about three years. With those ideas being speculation, let us consider one biblical fact — Jesus lived on this earth for about thirty years before beginning His ministry. He did not hurry into the ministry!
Too many people hurry. Too many people rush into life long before they are ready. Somehow we have allowed educators to tell us that children should enter school at five years of age and learn to read the next year. Each person is an individual, and certainly, none of us are ready at the same age to do anything, from walking to talking.
We rush our children off to school according to a random rule, and then we push them off to college at age eighteen according to the same ambiguous “rule.” We simply push everyone into molds that are not fit to each person’s mind, body, or social and spiritual development.
Dwight Moody was quoted as saying that if he had three years to live, he would spend two of them in college training and the third serving more effectively than he could have without the proper training.
Old Testament kings took the throne anywhere from age seven years of age and up. The transition time was a matter of circumstances, not an age mandate. George Washington was forty-three when he was commander and chief of the Continental army. Galusha Pennypacker was a Union general during the American Civil War at the age of twenty. To this day, he is the youngest person to hold the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army. Many a military man was commissioned according to skills, not age, while others gained rank due to the death of those above them. One does not start professional sports because of age, but because of skills and accomplishments. Little in our lives is tied to the calendar; why determine life plans on such a silly issue as age?
Why do we hurry life? If our Lord could wait until He was thirty years old to begin His earthly ministry, could we not allow circumstances to direct life, not age and timing? Every young person is not ready for the college dorms at age seventeen. Everyone is not ready for marriage at twenty-two or any other certain age. Let the youth marry when he is ready to be what he needs to be for his spouse and the glory of God.
Galatians 4:4 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,”
Jesus came when it was time, not when someone had the right number of birthdays. There was a time called the “fulness of the Gentiles.”
Romans 11:25 “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
The idea of being hasty and pushing into decisions or stages of life is a dangerous one.
Proverbs 19:2 “…and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.”
Proverbs 28:22 “He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.”
We hurry into the college, marriage, and the work force; then we hurry to retire and wander around wondering what to do with ourselves. Just why do we need to retire? Why quit working? Because we have had a certain number of birthdays? Now if there is a reason regarding health, company policy, or family, sure; but to just stop working? What a loss! Once we stop working, we cease to contribute to the good of our world. Retire so you can go to the mission field? Absolutely! Retire so you can serve full-time in your church as the janitor, building maintenance, or soul winner? WOW! What a good idea! To wander around America in a million-dollar motor home for the remainder of your life while doing nothing for God would be a terrible waste of time.
Let us see what would glorify God in the lives of our children. May we search out the will of God and do that which honors God in our own future plans.
1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
Pastor