Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
    and with my song I praise him.

This pattern is frequent in David’s Psalms, where he expresses his need, sometimes using fairly extreme terminology, and then progresses to praising God for meeting his need. We shouldn’t hesitate to ask God for whatever we need, but we should always remember that from His perspective, that need is already met. Paul touches on that a good bit in Romans, saying things like “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11) From our perspective, we are all too alive and vulnerable to sin, but from God’s perspective, all of that has already been taken care of by Christ’s sacrifice. From our perspective, all sorts of needs might be towering over us, but from God’s perspective, every one of those has been met by His riches in glory. (Philippians 4:19) We live in the flow of time, but God is outside of time, so everything is “now” for Him. We really can’t grasp how that works, so that’s where faith comes in. We are to live each moment in the flow of time, trusting Him to have it all under control, knowing that the love that caused Him to send His Son will be sufficient to take care of everything else as well. (Romans 8:32)

I have been aware of this issue of God being outside of time for as long as I can remember. I realize that’s pretty unusual, but then, I had no trouble understanding the concept of negative numbers when my brother explained it to me after he first encountered it in school, so I guess that’s how I’m made. It has helped me be patient (sometimes!) and has helped me trust God when I couldn’t see any solution to whatever I was confronting in the moment. There are countless elements of God’s kingdom that I wish were already manifested, but I need to release all of them into God’s hands and simply focus on whatever it is He wants me doing in the moment. As I was saying to a brother in Christ just yesterday, the main thing God asks of us is faithfulness. One of these days I will indeed have God’s perspective, after I leave this world and its limitation behind, but until then I have to trust that He indeed sees it all and has it all worked out.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s interesting that I still need it! Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, just as You have told me to do, so that all of Your purposes for me may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!