Courtney Gilmore Just as four hours can seem like forever to a small child, it’s just one of many mornings for an adult because we have lived so much longer than them. A year to a four-year-old is 1/4th of their short life, whereas a year to someone who’s 100 is only 1% of their time on this earth. This is how time is with God. Because He’s eternal, a thousand years to Him are like a day or night is to us. One person’s life may seem to the Lord like a short dream.
In the end, even to us, life is short. In the moment, our days may feel long and hard, but quicker than we think, they’ll be gone. Yet, even knowing this, how many of us are mindful of how we spend our time? We all want our lives to mean something after we’re gone. We all want to hear God say, “well done good and faithful servant.” But do we live our lives in such a way? Do we fear the Lord as we should, knowing that we will one day stand before Him and answer for our time here? Are we living in a way that would be pleasing to Him?
No creature is hidden from His sight. But all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Hebrews 4:13
Teach Us to Number Our Days
Some people do whatever they want, especially when they’re young, thinking they’ll be responsible and do what is right later. But what if later never comes? We have no idea how long we’ll live or how much misery we can heap on ourselves by going our own way. God wants us to turn to Him early, so we can live a life free from the consequences of our sin.
The sooner we start following Him, the better our lives will be. That doesn’t mean we’ll be free from trouble, but we’ll at least be free from the trouble of our own making. Then, if we want to live a life that’s pleasing to God, we need Him to continuously remind us how short our time is on this earth, so we’ll spend it wisely.
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12
Let the Lord to show you what’s important and what is not, help you want what He wants, and do His will.
It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13
Then ask Him to bless the work of our hands, so it will mean something.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands!
Psalm 90:17
We Need His Mercy
But, know that no matter how hard you try, you will not follow God completely. You will continue to fall short and earn His wrath instead of His favor.
By works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 3:20, 23 & 6:23
In order to fully please Him, we need Jesus. God loves us so much that He initiated a way for us.
But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 5:8-10
Jesus was willing to lay down His life so that we could please God by trusting in His Son for righteousness. That is the grace of God!
He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Choose God
God doesn’t want anyone die in their sinful state, lacking the covering of His Son’s blood.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved. With the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness. But is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:8-9
So, if we choose Him in this life, He will choose us in the next and we will experience the fullness of His Dwelling Place.
Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:32-33
He wants every one of us to live forever with Him. That is when we’ll truly experience the safety, security, peace, joy, comfort, and rest of living in His Presence.
Forget Not His Benefits
So, don’t forget how short your life is. Love and follow the Lord all the days of your life. A life with God, is a life not wasted! He loves us and He deserves our love and obedience in return. His ways are right and good and following Him is always right and good for us. In His presence is where we belong!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to His children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame and He remembers that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it and it is gone. Its place is no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments.
Psalm 103:2-5, 8-18
Links to This Lesson
This is an excerpt from “Teach Us To Number Our Days.” taught on Podcast and YouTube and as a written on Substack. Read the beginning of the lesson for free on Substack or in its entirety, along with the 25 previous lessons, for $6/month or $60/year. Once subscribed, you’ll receive one lesson each week thereafter.
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