PSALM 39:4-6 – “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah. Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather
THEME OF THE DAY. A VERY WISE PRAYER. In my conservations with Christians, my observations of Christians, and looking at my own heart, I think we need to spend more time pondering two things. First, the shortness of life. It really does go by fast. James reminds us, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14b). The reason why we need to pay more attention to the brevity of life is because we are so easily deceived to put more emphasis, more energy, more resources, more affection, and more time in the things of this world than the things of the next world. That leads to the next thing we should invest more time pondering and with a question to ask ourselves, maybe even daily, “Do we focus and direct our short lives in this world on what matters most in this world?” I am not sure anything would be more regretted in the life of a Christian than to reach the twilight years, or at least past the “halfway” point of a normal lifespan, and realize we lived with the wrong priorities, invested in the wrong things, gave the best of our time and energy to the wrong pursuits and pleasures. The pain of realizing too late that we chose and lived for this physical world and self instead of the spiritual world and Christ would be great. Yes, God certainly forgives all sin, even the sins of wasting our one life on the foolishness of this world, but it won’t change the stark reality of lasting consequences if we chose wrong. And one may very well be the generation following us. Parents, we only get one chance to have our kids at home to teach, model, and exhort them to live Christ-centered lives forsaking the world. Should we not make this our parenting priority, don’t be shocked when our kids want nothing to do with church, Christ, and His Word. We shouldn’t expect them to build lives around Him and His priorities if we didn’t model it consistently before them. They will follow what they observed.
However, all is not lost. We are still alive. Today. We still have grace to “recalibrate” our lives around eternity if we find we are not. And the way to do that is two-fold. First, do what I suggested in the opening paragraph – ponder the brevity of life and ask Who is the person guiding all of life? The other thing to do is found in today’s scripture. Prayer; the type of praying that pleads with God to make us know how fleeting life is and to invest it in the right things. The reason why this is a wise and needed prayer is because unless God opens our eyes to these truths, we will live earthbound and forgetful of the next world. We need divine illumination to see life as it really is – short and to be lived for eternity. And God will answer this prayer, if we really want Him to free us from the spiritual blindness keeping us from seeing life only in the dimension of this world.
Friends, life really is short. If we take time to think about it, we will know this truth deep down in our very being. And it we really think about it, such thoughts should free us from the self-deception of living for this world, its things, and its pleasures and move us to an eternity-focused life. After all, that is what God desires, even expects from His children – If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).
PRAYER: “Father, help me to see how fast my life is ebbing away and not to squander it on the wrong things.”
QUOTE: “To live with a sense of a fast approaching eternity is to live spiritually-minded, godly, and wise.”