of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you. So teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:9-12 ESV) "Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but=== as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV) It is true that "time and tide wait for no man." We wake up and it's Monday, then it's Friday, then it's Christmas, then it's New Years Day - again. Our lives pass so fast that we really have to be careful how we handle each day. Unwise people just let time pass by without making any plans or without considering what their lives should mean. That is why the psalmist wrote: "So teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom." "Numbering our days" means that we live one day at a time and grasp what we need to be or to do each day. It is irrevocably true that time "will soon be gone and we fly away." When we number our days, we have a "heart of wisdom," which means that our hearts are in tune with God's wisdom for our lives. Paul admonished us to "make the best use of our time." If we do less than this, we will be foolish and we will not "understand what the will of the Lord is." The best way to make the best use of fleeting time is to get in tune with the will of God for your life and follow that will each day. Then you will walk in wisdom - God's wisdom. Bro. Joe
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“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
“Again, He limits a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Hebrews 4:7 Have you ever wished that you lived in another time or another place? I guess we have all wished this at some time or other, but it is a useless exercise. We are living in a certain time at a certain place, and the way I see it, we are living in this time and place because that is what God wants of us. I have often said that I would go back to simpler times if I could take air-conditioning and medical science with me. I think you get my point. If we could live in another time and another place, we would still have to face the hardships of each day. I think that the Bible teaches us that we need to live today, because we can’t relive yesterday and we can’t live tomorrow until it gets here. That’s right, that only leaves today. We should live each day to the fullest, giving our time to the Lord, and following His will for our lives. I want to point out some things about living life to the fullest today. What we do with each day will determine what will take place in the future. I remember that when I was in high school, I decided that studying was a waste of time, and that homework was just a nuisance, so I gave them up. Each day passed, and life just kept going on. It took awhile, but I finally decided that I had better make better use of my days. Suppose I had not wised up and had kept on like I was going. The days would have kept passing and I would have gotten sorrier and sorrier. (Some of you are probably thinking that I couldn’t be any sorrier – shame on you. lol) How we use the time that we have each day will determine the quality of our lives as we live from day to day. It is important that we embrace each day. The psalmist gave us some wise advice: “This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It is worth noting that he did not write: “We should rejoice and be glad in it,” but he wrote “we will rejoice and be glad in it.” The NIV translates it: “Let us rejoice and be glad in it. ”Either way it is a positive statement about living each day that God has given us and rejoicing in Him and in the fact that He has given us another day. You can rejoice in the day or bemoan the day, but it is all you have at the moment. We can meet each new day with rejoicing, or we can bemoan each new day, and it will still be all thhat we have at the moment. Too many people are putting off today what they plan to do tomorrow. We need to take advantage of the fact that we are alive today, and that we can live it in a positive way. I have heard it said many times that we can greet the day with “good morning Lord,” or with “good Lord, it's morning.” Which do you think will give you a better day? It is today that we can take care of the things that we know need to be taken care of. One of these has to do with our spiritual lives. We can start off the day with prayer and reading God’s word. We know that if we want to draw closer to the Lord, we need to communicate with Him, and that we need to delve into His word. Today is a good day to start your day, as best you can with the time that you have, in fellowship with God and His word. I have found that the exercise of prayer and Bible reading has helped me “rejoice in the day that the Lord has made.” Today is the day to get right with the Lord. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:2b: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”In the spirit of that text, we can say that today is the accepted time to draw near to the Lord. You have today! What are you going to do with it? There are choices before you as you face today. You can spend some time praising God and thanking Him that you have today. You will be surprised at how much difference that will make in the rest of your day. Try it! Bro. Joe (I went deep in the archives for this article - back to 2013. It is as real to me today as it was in 2013. ! updated it.) “Behold you have made my days as a handbreadth; and my age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. 6. Surely every man (or woman) walks in a vain show: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them. 7. and now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.” It is true that “time and tide wait for no man.” Sometimes it seems like yesterday that I was young man, starting out in life with all kinds of hopes and dreams. I was called to my first pastorate in 1960 at the ripe old age of twenty-one. Life was out there before me. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not complaining about being old(er); I’m just pointing out that fifty-seven years have just flown by. I am now a retired minister – aged 78. It all seems like yesterday. Evidently, David agreed, because in our text he told us plainly that time goes by real fast. This is true, so what can we do about it? We can see each day as a gift from God and dedicate each day to Him. Instead of getting up each morning and saying, “Good Lord it’s morning,” we can wake up and say “Good morning Lord.” The great thing is that He is with us as we start each day, as we end each day, and as we retire for the day. As David contemplated the passage of time, he concluded: “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.” Though our time on earth speeds by, we don’t have to dread the passage of time, because our hope is in one greater than we are. Our hope is not in the days that we live but in the life that we put into the days that we have. I will confess that I get discouraged sometimes, because everything seems to be happening so fast, and it seems sometimes that life is passing me by. Of course that is nonsense. Life is not passing me by. It is going by and I am living each day of it. Each day is a gift of God and my hope is in Him. We can remember that in Christ our lives are anchored in eternity. Some favorite verses from the Gospel of John come to me as I think about this. There is John 10:27-28: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them from my hand.” The words that bring eternity into our lives are, “and I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus knows us; He knows everything about us, yet He loves us anyway. Then there are the dynamic words from John 11:25-26, which remind us that our lives are anchored in eternity instead of the quick passage of days: “Jesus said unto her (Lazarus’ sister Martha, just before Jesus raised him from the dead) I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. 26. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die…” It is this reality that makes life worthwhile and keeps us from bemoaning the passage of time. We can’t stop the passage of time, but we can make good use of it if we will trust Jesus each day. Oh, and I need to add one more verse from Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Bro. Joe |
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