From the Fear of Running out of Time, Deliver me Jesus

Most of us carry a quiet anxiety around the word "time". Thoughts like these can surface: Time is moving too fast. Time is moving too slow. I don’t have enough time. I’m falling behind. I should be further along by now. If it doesn’t happen soon, it will never happen. My window is closing. I can’t afford another year like this. I wasted my youth.

Sound familiar?

But pause for a moment and consider this: God created time. In Genesis we read, “In the beginning…”—the moment time itself came into existence. God, who has no beginning and no end, gave us the gift of time. Like every gift from Him, it carries purpose, meaning, and goodness.

Scripture is full of reminders that time is precious, limited, and deeply intentional. Yet many of us live in a constant state of waiting for the “next thing”: university, a job, marriage, a first baby, a second baby, retirement. We rush through seasons, convinced the next one will finally satisfy us.

But time is not something to escape. It is something to receive. Time is an opportunity to grow, mature, learn, love, serve, and encounter God.

The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… a time to weep and a time to laugh.” Seasons come and go. Waiting does not last forever. As the Psalmist writes, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

We were never meant to fear clocks or countdowns. The enemy cannot create anything, so he twists what God gives. He turns time, meant to be a gift, into something we fear, control, and measure ourselves against. This is where the time-scarcity mindset begins. We start putting God on a timer: If He doesn’t do this by this date, then He must not love me, or care about me, or have a plan for me.

And from that place of fear, we step outside God’s timing and try to take control. But our “Plan B” will never be better than God’s plan.

God’s delays are not God’s denials. And God is not bound by time.

Sarah conceived Isaac at ninety years old (Genesis 17–21). Joseph spends thirteen years in slavery and prison before God raises him to second‑in‑command in Egypt, turning years of hardship into purpose (Genesis 41). Hezekiah is told he will die, yet God hears his prayer and adds fifteen more years to his life (2 Kings 20:1–6). Elizabeth is described as “advanced in years” when she miraculously conceives John the Baptist (Luke 1). Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb after his earthly time had ended (John 11:38–44), and the good thief receives salvation in the final moments of his life (Luke 23:39–43). Across these stories, long seasons of waiting or loss become the very places where God reveals His power and works extraordinary restoration.

In the book of Joel, God promises: “I will restore to you the years…” God can redeem what feels like wasted time, years of waiting, wandering, or suffering. Nothing is lost when placed in His hands. Nothing is wasted when God is involved.

Time is not running out. Time is being held—by the One who created it.

Trust God’s Timing!