How Long is Eternity?
We count time in tomorrows, weeks, months, and years. We cannot comprehend the meaning of Eternity. We easily say I love you forever. Is there an ending to forever?
One writer commented, Eternity is beyond time. 2 Peter 3:8 tells us, A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
Time is so necessary on earth, we measure the time the caution light stays on and we can continue on our way.
As a young mother, I read the admonition of one writer to put a baby on a schedule. I lost confidence in the writer, and the need to read the rest of the book. Who can schedule a baby’s cries?
From the time we are small, I can remember the words, ‘Hurry up and get it done.’ We rush through life. We hear pretty phrases like, ‘stop and smell the roses.’ That would be nice if I had time, I silently added.
The first time I read Ecclesiastes 3:11, I understood the longing for peace and the desire to worship God and know Him. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
How long is Eternity? Isaiah 43:13. “From eternity to eternity I am God.
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.”
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.”
Eternity to Eternity, I am God. There is no other God, except the Lord Jehovah I Am! I belong to Him, for He planted eternity in my heart. I have not seen Him, yet I know He is the Keeper of my Soul.
When I was eight years old, I wondered if I would be good enough to spend Eternity with God. I knew John 3:16, and now I add the 17th and 18th verses. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”
It takes a lifetime of believing in God, for faith to grow into trusting Him completely. It is Jesus who said, “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
God commanded we rest one day after working six days. The Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days and then rested. Resting from working on the seventh day is a way of trusting God will provide.
Have you considered the joy of being chosen to be the Child of the Lord God who created the universe we live in? He desires a relationship with His children.
It is when I am alert to His leading; I know He walks beside me. I visit with Him about my day. It is when I rejoice and give thanks to Him; I know He is delighted. When I fret and worry, He shakes His head.
In His time, He sent His one and only Son Jesus to provide a Way to Eternity. That place of Spiritual Rest from Evil and Sin. Eternity is where Love reigns freely, there are no schedules or caution lights to obey. This is a place described in Revelation 21:5. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
It is through Jesus Christ, God has given us deliverance from slavery to sin… similar to when God led His Children from slavery in Egypt.
How do I prepare for Eternity and to meet our Lord God? Recently, I experienced a six-year-long goodbye to my beloved husband. When I could no longer care for him, I visited with him in the nursing home. At first, I read the devotions to him I had written. As his dementia grew deeper, I began singing hymns from an old hymn book. We listened to recordings of hymns and held hands. He could no longer see or walk then.
We talked about Heaven and what it would be like when he could see again and walk in the woods. We prayed. The greatest blessing for me, although he had forgotten me, he remembered Jesus.
He stored up faith and trust, studying God’s Word, and he was ready to go when God called him.
One scripture, precious to me is from Romans 8:37-39. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and He will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Psalm 37:3-6.
Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and He will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Psalm 37:3-6.
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