The Number of Your Days

Lord, help me to live each day as though it was my last, but to live my life as though it were everlasting.

We have no promise of what will happen in this world. There is no guarantee of what tomorrow will bring, or if there will even be a tomorrow. If there is, there will be evil expressing itself in places, and God's grace and mercy will continue to be expressed through His love to all who are seeking with hungry hearts, but the details of what will come our way will not be known until after they happen. We only know that if we are part of God's family, He will be with us all the way, leading us, empowering us, providing for us.

If this were the last day of your life, would you change anything? If so, there is no better time than now to turn to God for the grace and strength to make that change, for you have no assurance of any time beyond this moment.

If you knew your life would never end, would that bring you joy? Relief? Freedom from stress or worry? For some people, the lifestyle they live is one of despair and unrelenting pain and misery of the soul and the mind, of a broken heart and regrets and emptiness. A vista of unending days of sorrow and endless nights of unrest is not a desirable vision.

If you can feel confident facing the last day of your life, sure of your relationship with God, the final Judge, and have the sweet assurance that you have been pardoned from the punishment that otherwise would have been yours, you are blessed with riches not available in this world.

If you can picture yourself journeying through an endless string of days never regretting, never being ashamed, never feeling pain for wounds received or caused, enjoying the divine fellowship of the Creator and Redeemer, then you are living already in eternity and knowing the blessedness of God's forgiveness and experiencing the presence of the Lamb of God, Jesus. 

For those of us who are living and working and walking in daily fellowship with God and finding that the events of each day draw us closer to the God of heaven, we are discovering that our thoughts and our desires are less and less of ourselves and the things of the world. Instead we are becoming more intent on the thoughts of God, which give us life and hope and courage, and the desires of His heart, which direct us to consider others and be excited about what is happening in their lives and to want the best for them and to bring their needs and situations to God.

This way of life makes it easier to let things fall away that would hold us back and weigh us down. When there is less of ourselves that we think of, how can we feel hurt when someone slights us or is unkind to us? When we accept the truth about ourselves, anything that someone else has to say about us is only half as bad as the truth. And it is that kind of a person that Jesus was willing to die for! There is nothing we can do to make Him love us more, but there is nothing about us that can make Him love us less. 

We can't take any credit for overcoming the weaknesses that each of us have and struggle against in our lives, for every time that we try to stand against it in our own willpower, we lose the battle. Once we lay down our pride, and surrender our strength, and give up our self-image of our abilities and admit we are helpless and ask God for help, we find the victory that we could never achieve on our own. By His grace, He makes us overcomers, He makes us more than conquerors. That leaves no place for boasting or pride -- we can only be grateful to God. He did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

Psalm 49
v.12 But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.
v.13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.
v.15 But God will redeem my life from the grave; He will surely take me to Himself.

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