Editor's note: This is an excerpt from the Bible study The Ways of God by Henry Blackaby and Roy Edgemon.

God is eternal. The psalmist wrote:

Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God (Psalm 90:2).

Your throne has been established from the beginning; You are from eternity (Psalm 93:2).

Because God is eternal, He is not limited by time, nor is He contained by it: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (Rev. 22:13). God was before time, is now, and will be after time has passed away. Rather than being bound by the chronology we know, God completely surrounds and contains time.

God created time for the benefit of humanity. He created us and placed us in time so that we would have the opportunity to enter a relationship with Him, know Him, and learn to walk with Him. God even delays the coming of the end of the world so that more people will have opportunity to know Him and be saved: "The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9).

God's sense of timelessness is just the opposite of the typical human perspective. Without the limits of time, we might tend to think, What's the hurry? God, however, created time and knows how much each of us has to respond to Him and to seek His eternal remedies for our needs. Therefore, God understands the need for urgency during our relatively short time on earth.

Although we live in time now, God created us for eternity. The writer of Ecclesiastes put it this way: "He has also put eternity in their hearts" (3:11). Therefore, we must learn to live for eternity, not for time. We are to live our lives in time with eternity as the backdrop. Because God is eternal, we cannot serve Him thinking in terms of time alone. And Scripture reminds us that our time on earth is brief:

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk-not as unwise people but as wise-making the most of the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16).

Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer. Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:7-8)

These passages convey a sense of urgency that should shape a believer's perspective. We have little time on earth, yet what we do here affects eternity. We need to live with an eternal perspective in everything we do as believers, walking with wisdom, praying to the One with whom we will spend eternity, and loving other people. An eternal perspective points us to what is lasting and to what is free from earthly distractions. Diligence in our spiritual walk, discipline in prayer, and loving attentiveness to others are investments in our relationships with God and others-things that will last through eternity.

An eternal perspective affects our priorities and our actions. I have watched Christians go to pieces when they lost a child or a parent to death. The pain is real, but even more so is the consolation. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter, and heaven belongs to those who serve the living God. The watching world says, "You say Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, but the way you respond to grief suggests that He isn't." Jesus is glorified by those who believe in Him (see 2 Thess. 1:10). So when Jesus makes a statement about who He is, such as the resurrection and the life (see John 11:25), you must decide whether He is telling the truth and whether you will believe Him and allow the world to see that truth expressed through your life.

If you talk about Jesus, you had better live what you talk, or you can blur what people should be seeing of eternity. For example, Jesus forgave even when the offender was absolutely wrong. We usually want to justify ourselves. Jesus never did. He lived for eternity by simply living out forgiveness. If you are falsely accused, what will you do? If you go to your lawyer and sue someone, how will a watching world know the difference Jesus makes and that Jesus forgives? When you find yourself in an awkward situation and you act like Jesus instead of like the world, you are a witness to the ways of God, and God is glorified. When people say, "I don't understand how you can respond that way," you can say, "I can tell you why. Because my Lord forgives, He enables me also to forgive, even when I have been wronged." When God vindicates you, He does it by His own ways instead of through anything you could manipulate. God lets the world know the difference He makes, and He rewards your faithfulness by confirming His truth.

When your behavior reflects your confident belief in God's eternal truth, you demonstrate your faithfulness to Him. God's response is eternal in scope and entrusts you with greater opportunities to serve and witness of His eternal ways.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.