November 28 – Understanding Life (Psalm 39:4-6)

“Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”(Psalm 39:4)

IN WORD:
How long do you have left to live? It’s a sobering question for this sobering reason: We don’t know the answer. We can’t know, unless God has given us some peculiar revelation that most will never receive. Whether we’ve just been given a clean bill of health or diagnosed with a terminal disease, we still don’t know how long we have in this world. The diagnoses of doctors are always subject to human error. Furthermore, a perfectly healthy person can be killed in a car accident. Only God knows the day of our passage out of these earthen vessels.
Many people would prefer not to consider such questions. They are too morbid, perhaps. But David wants to know; he asks God to show him, to remind him of how transient his life is. No, he isn’t necessarily asking to know the date of his death. He wants the sense of urgency that reflects the reality of our short lives. He wants to make every moment count.
So should we. Far from being a morbid thought, understanding the brevity of our earthly life spans will bring us a sense of focus like nothing else will. We will begin to strive for what is important and forsake whatever isn’t. We will get our priorities straight. Ask anyone who has been given only a short time to live. Understanding life’s uncertainty can lead to a remarkable shift in values.

IN DEED:
Do you want that kind of focus? Don’t wait for a doctor’s diagnosis. Go ahead and choose a time. What length would give you a proper perspective and help you live with the right priorities? A year? 5 years? 6 months? You decide. Then go ahead and live as though you have only a year left, or however much time you’ve chosen. Assume, for example, that God will take you home one year from today. Watch your priorities change. Watch your relationship with God and with others transform. Begin living in the light of eternity, and understand the life God has given us.

“It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day.” -Matthew Henry-