A 25-hour day? In December of 2016, researchers at Durham University and UK’s Nautical Almanac Office discovered that we could spend an extra hour either in bed or at work. Scientists have claimed that the earth’s days will get an hour LONGER in the future due to the planet’s slowing orbit and clocks will become outdated.
However, earth’s citizens have been advised not to throw out the clock just yet, as the day is lengthening only by two milliseconds every 100 years and getting an extra minute in the day will take 6.7 million years. And the length of the day will not extend to 25 hours for around another 200 million years.
It’s not uncommon to hear of someone saying, “I’ve so much to do and so little time to complete them and having one more hour in the day might just be the answer.” Yet we all have 24 hours in a day, and our God who’s perfect has made a day, evening and morning to be 24 hours.
Each time when I head to the Bible College of Wales for ministry work, it has consistently allowed me to experience something significant and unusual. God begins to put the rhythm of His life into mine. Often, He has had to take us away from the familiar demands upon our lives for us to be more acutely aware of the need to live in that inner chamber of our spirit where God dwells. It’s in the inner chamber where He teaches, guides and communes with us.
When I’m there, I’ve had personal defining moments with God through dreams, quiet times of meditation of His Word and in prayer. Each assignment has allowed me to experience God’s fullness and to meet Him in my spirit. It’s to take time to be set apart for Him, for His special purpose or work. It’s to be holy as He is Holy.
This “inward journey”, does not mean a “self-ward’ journey or detachment from the world; but rather, a process of sanctification where we meet with God in our spirit and experience His fullness. Andrew Murray in his book, “The Inner Chamber and The Inner Life”, wrote that there’s nothing that weakens the call to imitate the example of the saints in the Bible than the thought that theirs are exceptional cases, and what we see in them is not to be expected of us. Is the aim of God in Scripture to be the very opposite? You must believe the same God who’s in them is also within you!
If the daily renewal of the inner man is to be a reality, it’s to take time to meditate, to worship and to believe with your whole heart that the Holy Spirit has been given to you. Believe that through Him, God will work the blessing that He gives, through prayer and the Word.
Prayer is the voice of our life. As a man lives, so he prays. It’s not the words or thoughts at the customary set times of prayer, but the bent of our heart seen through our desires and actions, and this is regarded by God as real prayer. This is His work in us, by His grace, through His will and our nature, which from common misconception have alluded us. The life speaks louder and truer than the lips and so to pray well, one must live well. He who seeks to live with God will learn to know His mind and to please Him.
And I end with a timeless quote from E.M. Bounds, that while “The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”
