Afterwards

[0:00] A pastor's reflections. Afterwards. Exodus 11.1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go hence.

[0:15] Psalm 27.14. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. John 14.3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again afterward, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

[0:35] God is outside of time, and so is not constrained to viewing life by the same means we do. We see things sequentially, as they come to us. We then experience those things in what we call the present, and remember them in the past. For God, all time is now. He is not constrained by time, nor does he view life as that which has happened, is happening, and will happen.

[1:02] He says as much in Revelation 1.8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come.

[1:14] All time exists in God, and is therefore constrained by God, not the other way around. For God, the future is not something he is waiting for, but something that he has already experienced.

[1:26] He knows the future, because he is already in the future, just as he is in the present. Colossians 1.16.17 For by him were all things created, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

[1:42] For you and I, however, we do not have the benefit of knowing or experiencing the future until we enter into it through the experience of the present. God knows what is to come, but we do not.

[1:56] The benefit of knowing God is that we then know someone who has gone before us into the future and can amply prepare us for what is to come. The struggle is not that we do not trust God or believe that he is in the future and containing the future.

[2:13] The struggle is that we want to have now what God has prepared for tomorrow. When trials enter our life, we want the end of them now.

[2:25] When a promise has been made for eternity, we want to experience all of it now. When we read in God's word the work of sanctification, we want that work to be done now.

[2:38] John 16.12-13 I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit afterward, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth.

[2:53] The afterwords of God are not for now, but they are for us. Do not focus on what tomorrow brings, but instead focus on what future truth the Holy Spirit wants to guide you into today.

[3:09] Leave the afterwards with God. Live today's future in the present power and reality of a God who contains all time, even yours. Father, thank you for being our Father time and always right on time.

[3:25] Because you alone contain the future, you are able to use that knowledge to then give us a future and a hope. Thank you for giving us the present and future truth of your spirit through the eternal work of your Son.

[3:41] Amen. Amen. Amen.