A question I get a lot is why does God take so long? Why doesn’t God just do things immediately. That is a very valid point, and God has a great answer for us. 2 Peter 3:8. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. God is trying to give a sense in this verse about how the time in our life compares with eternity. We can now use math to see something amazing.

The premise is 1000 years is one day with the Lord. First how many days are in 1000 years.

365 days times 1000 = 365,000 days. But there would also be 250 leaps years so the total number of days in 1000 years is 365,250 days. One day in forever with Jesus equals 365,250 days on earth.

Now we need to see how many days in our life to compare apples to apples. The average life expectancy is 78. Yes, this does change slightly from year to year, but it seems to be close to accurate.

78 years equals 28,470 days and we will assume 20 leap years so 28,490 days in a lifetime.

Now we can see how 78 years from God’s perspective looks like.

28490 all the days of an earthly lifetime times what a day to the Lord is like, 365,250 so a 78-year life in God’s time would equal 10,405,972,500 days.

Now that we have both lifetimes converted to days, we can compare by dividing our earthly life versus the same life in God’s time.

28,490/10,405,972,500 = .00000274

When we have been in heaven for about the same time as our life on earth. Our life will have taken up .00000274th of a day. So, what does that equal too in our time.

There are 86400 seconds in a day.

.00000274 times 86400 = .236736 seconds

When you have been dead and in heaven or hell forever, and you look back on your life. Your life only took up .236736 seconds or less than a quarter of a second of time to complete.

Life is really, really short. How short is a quarter of a second. About the amount of time to snap your fingers. That short! Jesus says in James 4:14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Wow, Jesus is really accurate with this verse after you see the math.

I use this verse at every funeral I have ever done in my 32 years as a Pastor. It is a great comfort to know that if your loved one is in heaven with Jesus. When you get to heaven it will be as if you never missed them.

So how does this answer our original question about why does God take so long to do things. If life is only ¼ of a second long, then basically everything happens at the same time. Yes, we think waiting in line for a couple of hours is long, it isn’t. Someone who goes through life with an ailment is really not going through it for a long time. Forever is so much longer than we think or can imagine. When God makes a promise, He keeps it. Remember Abraham and Sarah waiting 24 years for a baby. 24 years was not a long time. In our human eyes yes, but in terms of forever, it was no time at all.

Matthew 18:19-20 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” When you agree about anything it will be done, and when we get to heaven and look back, we will see that it was done in less than a ¼ second of real time. Which is basically immediately. We don’t get it, because we can’t yet see time as God sees it, but one day we will and go oh my. Be patient and fully trust that God is doing something right now!

When you know Jesus, no matter what happens in this life, no matter how bad it gets, it is only a blip in your existence. Therefore, we can go through anything because we know forever with Jesus in heaven is so much longer and so worth it, and all that happens in this life really is inconsequential when you think about it. And you can use it all to bring someone to Jesus.

Why can people who are tormented for Jesus, still love on those who treat them badly. They have come to the realization that heaven is soooooo much longer, and thus nothing really matters on this earth but coming to know Jesus. Imagine if we all had that perspective.

Keep the focus on Jesus and the reward in heaven in will FAR outweigh anything that happens in this life. You will look back and go, yeah all of that was no big deal. What you do with that knowledge to bring people to Jesus is what counts. Then when you are in heaven God can show you your life and say see you wanted that done, and I did, and we will go OH OK I get it now.

Forever is a long time, and we just don’t get it because our minds just can’t imagine forever. God gave us this amazing verse to see things from His viewpoint. So, we can see there is hope, things will get better, and they will get better soon. In about a ¼ of a second.

Now the flip side to the coin, we don’t really have a lot of time to tell people about Jesus. We need to be always on that job because life is short and a lot shorter than we think.

Remember Jesus loves you; I love you, and you are you are awesome!