His Days...

Those who keep track of such things tell us that, in our lifetime, we will spend:

6 months sitting at stoplights
1 year looking for misplaced objects
4 years doing housework
5 years waiting in line
1.6 years on Facebook

To this I would add wasting way too much time waiting for freight trains.

How valuable is time?  Time is like a bank account.  Every morning we are credited with 86,400 seconds.  Every night time rules off as lost whatever of this we failed to invest to good purpose.  Time carries over no balances.  It allows no overdrafts.  Each day it opens a new account with us.  If we fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is ours.  There is no going back.  There is no drawing against tomorrow.

Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days (to consider the value of the time we are given) that we may get a heart of wisdom” (that we would learn to see our days from God’s perspective).

Numbering our days begins as we count the true value of each day.  If one lives to be 70 years old, he has 25,550 days to use to the glory of God or to self-interest.  If he lives to be 80, there are 29,200 days (personally I’m working on the 80 plus year plan).  Time seemingly becomes more valuable as we see less of it ahead of us.  Before we were born God knew us, the number of our days, and the events of our lives.  God, who created time and uses time according to His purposes gives to each of us the moments of our lives.  Time has value as it is given to us by God.

Wisdom comes as we ask the question, “Why has God given me today?”  Has God given me today so that I can use time as my possession to spend on myself?  Endlessly pursuing my idea of what really matters?  Has God given me today so that I can take one more lap in the Rat Race?  To meet deadlines and rush to appointments?  Watching my life become unraveled as my order and timing is upset?

The eternal God gives us each day to trust and serve Him.  Only when we trust God with our lives can we really experience the blessing of seeing God significantly work in us and through us.  Only then will we experience the fulfillment and significance in life that deep down we all crave.

Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, ultimately life really is about God. 

Have you ever looked back and thought about all the times God was there even when you had no clue about Him?  What is a real brain rocker is to consider that God, knowing my disobedience, still gave me those days, hung in there with me, and patiently and lovingly called me to Himself.  Even in those days when I think I’m really doing great stuff for God, God is patiently hanging in there with me.  Looking back I can see God calling, shaping, correcting (ouch), growing, and working in my life despite myself.

Thank God that He does not simply give us time, step back, and expect us to figure all this out on our own.  His desire for us and our great need is to walk with Him through the days He has given us.  Life works when we learn to trust God with our lives so that we begin to see the that story of our lives is really His story produced in us.  We begin to live by His strength and guidance according to His great purposes.

What are the circumstances of your life?  Where do you need to trust God for His timing?  The Bible encourages us to see our frailty and to see God’s sovereignty and to trust Him.  To give our minutes and days to Him.  To let go of our solution finding and worrying about all the “stuff” we have to do and trust Him to lead us forward as His people.

What is true of us as individuals is also true of us as a congregation.  Looking back through the history of Creekside we can see God at work.  May we learn to trust and follow Him into the days He may yet give us to serve Him.  To God be the glory.