Defining Now

Defining Now

And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

Deuteronomy 10 v 12


The definition of now is a period of two hours before and after this moment. A day then is a series of “nows”. A life too is won or lost in nows. The uni-verse emphasizes that if we regard ourselves as part of the spiritual Israel, we should stop resisting the Lord but to be always conscious of His presence and leading, to acknowledge Him in all our ways. All His ways should become all our ways. When we do all this we are truly loving Him with all our hearts and all our minds and all our strength. Nothing in our lives is excluded from the gaze and influence of the Lord and His Word. His Word makes our lives salty and influential. It will increase our passion for God and whet our appetite for the things of God. The question we need to ask ourselves is : what are we going to do “now”- in the past two hours, what did we do to revere the presence of the Lord in our lives, what did we do to imbibe His Word, what actions did we take to follow His leading, to align all our ways with His ways. How did we express our love for God in the past two hours and intend to in the next two hours?

When we identify the meaning of “now” with only the present moment, it becomes too transient and small to do anything. We end up doing little or nothing. But when we define “now” in terms of a couple of hours on both sides of the present moment, we are able to express our love in a variety of ways and identify our lives with the Creator and Redeemer. For instance, I worshipped the Lord sitting in the garden listening to a good number of new songs over the past two hours from six a.m. when I awoke. For the next couple of hours, I am meditating on this uni-verse. A window of time of two hours on this side and that side of the present moment is “now.” Scripture states that “ Now is the hour of salvation. Today is the day of salvation.” This kind of perspective on time makes us present-focussed.


The Lord exhorts us to love Him now and not in the indefinite future and to choose His ways now as it is good for us now and not in just an unspecified or indefinite future. It will benefit us the most. Israel as it struggled through the desert were led to an oasis called Elim. Elim had twelve wells and thirty palm trees that quenched their thirst and hunger. Human well being depends on twelve wells: the foremost is divine inspiration, followed by aspiration, perspiration, deep thought, good relationships, physical discipline, healthy habits, perfect communication, good attitudes, contentment, careful planning and execution. We were brought to life by the Lord with His breath. We were saved for eternity by the sacrificed blood of Jesus. Earlier blood sacrifices by Israel bought peace for a while. But now the new covenant sacrifice of Jesus is for once and for all. We can now continually breathe the breath of God- the Holy Spirit who sustains us and leads us. This deep well of divine inspiration is connected with eleven other wells – aspiration, perspiration, deep thought, good relationships, physical discipline, healthy habits, perfect or near perfect communication, good attitudes, contentment, careful planning and execution. The words " all your ways" in the uni-verse describes or sums up all these twelve wells of life. The thirty palms of Elim are the metaphor for the numerous challenges we face in our lives that enable us to grow spiritually, holistically and in all our ways to bear fruit.



Prateep V Philip