Our days are numbered


Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:16 ESV
            What is true of the psalmist is also true of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:5, it is true of all of us according to Ephesians 2:10, and in Matthew 10:29-31.  The admonitions the Bible makes against anxiety are not unreasonable, but have the very best reasons behind them. The best of all these good reasons is that the Christian is in the hands of loving God. John 6:37-39 tells us this is the safest place we could possibly be. Our souls are secure in life everlasting.
            As for our days on this Earth they are numbered friend. They are all accounted for in God’s book. We have only so many. And for those of us in Christ this good, for death is the doorway to a better life. There is simply no reason to be anxious, or afraid regarding our survival. Luke 12:25-26 asks that painful question about the power of anxiety and all its frantic efforts and takes as inevitable the answer that they are all futile and vain. But there follows a promise of provision for those who seek the Kingdom first and the righteousness of God, that same promise we find in Matthew 6:33.
            Beloved the world is very anxious now, and they shall be anxious for some time hence as they are confronted with the appearance of death. Indeed death has always been with them, and threatened always in the same way; but now they have been given to see the threat and they are frightened.  And well they should be, for God’s anger still rest upon them who have not accepted the pardoning grace of Christ. We have accepted and received that grace and the wrath of God is turned from us. Therefore I urge you, as I have done before, not to fall in with the panic of the masses. Rather live in light of the gospel you have received and trust God in all things. Seek His Kingdom with boldness, and with courage. Knowing that it is not death to die in Christ, and that all things must work for the good of those who serve our Lord, Romans 8:28.
Prayer
            Father you have ordained the end from the beginning, and have numbered the days of our lives according to Your plans. Surely the people are as grass. Even for the grass of field you provide. Even the grass of the field you adorn with beauty greater than that of Solomon in all his royal splendor. You keep watch on the sparrows so that not one falls but you take notice. Are we not worth much more? Is our value not proved in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us? Is this not love? You have loved us, and given us assurance of life after death. We do not know when death may approach, but You know. Let us rest in these truths without anxiety. Let our lives be to Your glory. Your will be done. In Jesus name we pray these things. Amen.
 Song
It is not death to die by Sovereign Grace

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Up and ahead

              Sometimes we are blindsided by a sudden shift in life. We thought we were on stable ground, and then someone starts shouting at us in a routine meeting, or tells us we don’t have a job anymore on a Monday morning, or a loved one leaves on Friday evening with no plans to return. We are left with broken piece of something that once made a kind of sense to us. We knew, and now we do not know.             Where is God? We can’t see Him anymore. We cannot understand where He went to, or what he was thinking. We trusted Him, didn’t we? Now look where we are… It is the better part of wisdom to be quiet when these calamities come to visit and to wait. It is the one wise thing Job’s friend did, when first they saw the plight of the miserable man, they only wept with him.             When later they decided to try and explain things, it did not help Job at all. What could they tell him? They didn’t have answers. And a lot of times we do not have answers either. We are too sca
Read more

Against work addiction

  It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:2 ESV             When work becomes anxious toil, something has gone wrong. Something has gone wrong in our society when it comes to work. Several decades ago, Wayne Oats coined a new word, “Workaholic” to describe addiction to work.   The description Oats came up resonates with the psalmist describes. Anxious toiling, long hours, and little if any enjoyment of the work itself or the fruits of the toil. Addiction is another word for slavery, and it is easy to be enslaved by the anxiety over our work for it drives to work more, and that increases our anxiety while also burning through psychological energies.             Not only is workaholism addiction/slavery, it is idolatry for if we stop to think about it the workaholic has placed his hope in his own work. Beloved what is truly tragic is that we live in society that admires the workaholi
Read more

The folly of, "what if?"

              As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. John 9:1 ESV             Here we find a man born blind, sitting beside the way, with nothing much to do. And we are given to understand this had been the occupation of his life, sitting and begging. We can imagine he had a lot of time to think. And what do we suppose he was thinking about? What do we find ourselves thinking about when life leaves us sitting beside the way with time to think? Do we ponder how we got there? Do we perhaps wonder if there might have been some other way we could’ve gone? Do we wonder, perhaps where else we might have ended up? Do we not find ourselves moving from practical questions, into those alluring questions of what if? There are few questions which hold the captivating power of, “what if?” The question immediately removes the constraints of what is which often seem to hold us in less favorable positions. We are free to believe that which is not evident, not apparent; but desperately w
Read more