Numbered!

Numbered!

Help us to remember that our days are numbered, and help us to interpret our lives correctly. Set your wisdom deeply in our hearts so that we may accept your correction.

Psalms 90:12 TPT

So teach us to number our days, That we may cultivate and bring to You a heart of wisdom. Psalms 90:12 AMP

A quick look at the verse just before this one: Who comprehends the strength of your anger? Your wrath matches the fear it inspires. Read this again; words written by Moses, the man of God. A man who saw God in action in Egypt, across the Red Sea experience and the desert, who saw amazing miracles and punishment for rebellion, a man who was privileged and permitted to see an image of God, whatever form it took. Yet, at the point of taking the people into the promised land, he made a mistake. Whether it was assumption on his part, or simple carelessness or taking God for granted, he was refused entry into the promised land. Moses knew firsthand what God's anger looked, and what His wrath and mercy also looked like. Do we want to have the same experience as Moses before we learn about the fear and wrath of God? 

We don't speak about God in this manner anymore. We seem to have met another God who is our buddy and we can bend to our will; a God who permits our sins; after all, He knows we are human. However, our understanding of God's grace must never diminish our revulsion of sin, and we must never get to a point where we don't see sin the way God sees it. Only by seeing things the way God sees it can I accord it the necessary importance. God hates and will punish sin, no matter in whom it is found. If I take nothing away from recent experiences, let this be a word of caution: God is to be loved, feared and worshipped; knowing God means knowing what He loves and hates, and pursuing after the things He cherishes. That is the secret and foundation to the treasures in today's extract. 

What, then, are the lessons:

1. God has to teach and I have to learn. It is God's prerogative to teach me how to number my days the right way. Man is by nature slow to learn, which is why he repeats the same mistakes several times. He does not have the strength in himself to resist sin, but only in and through God can He find the grace to live right. 

2. My mortality is both my greatest asset as well as my greatest limitation. What is the lesson: to number my days the right way; to learn how to interpret my life correctly; to understand my mortality. I was given this one life to make the best use of it, and I only get to live it once. All of the time I am given is a gift, and I get to decide how I will use it. That is the greatest gift God has given man: the gift of choice. But there is a counterbalance: the power of consequences. My mortality is my greatest asset only while I am still alive; once the earthly phase ends, it is either heaven or hell. What lessons do I need to learn whilst I am still in this mortal body? 

3. There is both a right way and a wrong way to learn about my mortality. Today's extract makes it clear that God is the One who can help me learn and live right. Because the devil knows how important my life is, he sets up obstacles, distractions and detours, so I can take my eyes off the One who can help me end well. If I listen to the devil, I expose myself to deceit and the lessons get longer and more confusing. If I keep my eyes on God, His help is available free of charge. His love is steeped in eternity, so nothing of this world can be more important to Him than my eternal reality. 

4. There is an accounting, a rendering to be done at the end of my earthly mortality. The reason why God must teach me and I must learn is because I must stand before God to defend what I have done with the life He gave me. Think about this: I get to live maybe 120 years on earth; that is nothing compared to what lies at the end of the earthly phase. If I can take God's Word as true, and claim His promises of protection and provision, why would I doubt His Word about heaven and hell and the consequences of rejecting His Son Jesus? The value of my life is defined by its eternal reality. That is why Jesus' eternal words make sense here: "what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? If eternity has not been birthed and is being sustained in my heart, my life has no eternal value; I am only living for the now. 

5. There is help to live right. This help is freely available, but I must choose to submit to the One with the help. I have the power of choice; God has the power of consequences. He will not force Himself on me, but I also cannot ignore Him forever. One day soon, all knees, either by choice or compulsion, will bow the knee before the King of Kings, even Jesus Himself. It is better I bow now and get eternal life sealed, than to bow it in compulsion, with no hope of eternal life, lost forever. 

A new phase, new year, new month, new day, new job; whatever it is that is new in my life is good news, but there is just one news that never changes in focus, intensity or eternal value: Jesus returns soon. Am I making my life count now? Is eternity being birthed in me? Am I learning all that God wants to teach me? His time of favour is here.