Have you ever felt as if you'd live here on earth forever?
Dying isn't exactly something I think about much. I know that I'll be in heaven with God, but I don't ever really think about the fact that my days on earth are numbered. That kinda seems like a depressing thing to dwell on.
Psalm 90:12, though, talks about learning how to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Truth be told, we only have one time of ever being here on earth. We will live forever in eternity, but our days here on earth are numbered.
As I think about this verse, what I learn is that I need to make every day matter and make a difference for the Kingdom of God.
I have a tendency to get myself caught up in things that really have no lasting value. I spend an hour each day getting ready between showering, makeup, hair, and whatever else. Then, I spend time working, trying to bring in an income. There are many hours that I spend watching movies, and as you all know, there are plenty of other things that occupy our time. What is this called? Life.
So, how do we number our days?
God has given all of us the wonderful gift of being able to have a relationship with Him. He's given us the opportunity to love Him, to know Him, and to be known and loved by Him. He also has given us the command to go into all the world and tell other people about Him.
All the things I described above about life are things that everybody does. We all have things that we do that can easily be summed up in the simple word called "life". What matters is that while we live life, we do all that we do as unto the Lord.
I'm a cashier at a sporting goods store. It's a day before Christmas, and let me tell you, the closer Christmas gets, the more grumpy people are at stores. There's the stress of funds being tight. There are people who are hurting because they won't get to spend this year's Christmas with a loved one that they lost. Some people are lonely. Others feel pressured, and what does this lead up to? A lot of difficult customers for me? I used to think so. That is, until God helped me stop viewing these people as customers and helped me begin viewing these people as people. The lady who walked in and didn't say hi; the person who treated me like a slave when I was trying to help and got mad when I misunderstood; the person who was short and unkind... all of these "customers" are people that have things going on in their own lives that I will probably never know about.
This is where numbering my days comes in. If I forget that my time here on earth is but a blink of an eye, I can get wrapped up in getting angry at these people, but when God reminds me that my time here is short, and He put me here to be a light to a lost and hurting world, I can take a step back and love instead of becoming angry.
The best thing about numbering our days is that it helps us keep things in perspective. When your face breaks out or you have a bad hair day, it's easy (at least as a girl) to think, "This is sooo awful!" But when my face broke out severely this year, it taught me a lot! It made me realize that outward beauty truly is fleeting, and inward beauty is what truly lasts. It gave me compassion for people who struggle with feeling as if their not enough because I remember feeling like I wasn't enough. It made me realize how it feels to be looked at differently just because your physical appearance looks different than the world's standard of "beauty".
When we can look at our life and number our days, we can begin to see the value of the things that "life" consists of... from face breakouts to difficult customers to everything else that comes our way.
I encourage you today to ask God to help you be able to number your days so that you can see the lasting value of things in life instead of getting wrapped up, as it is so easy to do, in things that really don't matter in the end. Pray that He will help you do all that you do as unto Him and that He will use every experience you encounter in life for His glory. This is where you'll find purpose and meaning in your life!
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for showing me that I don't need to get wrapped up in the worries and concerns of "life" because You have a higher purpose for me being here than what I can see. Help me be able to keep the right perspective about life so that what I do will bring positive, lasting effects for Your Kingdom.
In Jesus' Name.
Amen.
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