“Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am” (Psalm 39:4).

AT THEIR LONGEST, OUR LIVES IN THIS WORLD ARE QUITE BRIEF. With astonishing swiftness, we enjoy our youth, reach our maturity . . . and then suddenly find ourselves facing the end. Sooner or later, we all come to appreciate what Job meant when he said, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6).

It is undeniably true that our earthly lives go by quickly, and we need to know that it’s true. We may not WANT to know it, but we NEED to know it. The more frankly we face that fact, the more reverently we’ll live our lives while they last. So David was a wise man when he prayed, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.”

Look at what happens when we don’t face life’s brevity:

(1) WE SPEND THE FIRST HALF OF LIFE PRODIGALLY. Prodigal actions are wasteful, that is, they spend limited resources as if they were unlimited. Isn’t that the way we “spend” our days prior to middle age? Thinking the “supply” is unlimited, we’re not very careful.

(2) WE LIVE WITHOUT REGARD FOR GOD. Failing to face the brevity of life, we also fail to take God into account in our actions. If we even believe there will be a day of judgment, we assume it’s so far in the future that it has little bearing on our day-to-day conduct.

(3) WE LIVE WITH LITTLE PERSPECTIVE, WHICH CAUSES US TO ERR IN OUR DECISIONS. Many of our most important decisions are made on the basis of assumptions about “how much time we’ve got left,” and faulty assumptions in that area can seriously skew our judgment. Taking our lease on life for granted, we make shortsighted choices.

So we need to live life with death in mind. Our minds should be governed by neither a morbid fascination with death nor a gloomy fatalism, but simply a healthy understanding that WE HAVE ONLY A FEW DAYS IN WHICH TO GET OUR WORK DONE. When the time came for Jesus to die, He had accomplished His life’s work in the time that was granted to Him, and He could say, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Is there any chance that you and I can say the same?

“Here’s death, twitching my ear: ‘Live,’ says he, ‘for I am coming’” (Virgil).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied” (Ecclesiastes 6:7).

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO MOST PEOPLE IS THE SATISFACTION OF THEIR WORLDLY DESIRES. Even if they acknowledge that there are some spiritual realities over and beyond the concerns of this world, most people spend most of their time trying to satisfy the latter rather than the former. Basically, as the writer of Ecclesiastes observed, “the labor of man is for his mouth.” And maybe we wouldn’t put it so strongly, but when Paul described some by saying that their “god is their belly” (Philippians 3:19), he might easily have been commenting on our own culture.

And yet, for all our effort, we end up being distinctly UNSATISFIED. No matter what we manage to enjoy, the question still seems to be: IS THAT ALL THERE IS? So frankly, what should be our attitude?

First, we need to admit the transitory nature of all temporal pleasures and possessions. Yes, it’s right to enjoy what God has created in this world, but we shouldn’t expect more from this enjoyment than it was intended to deliver. We may “hold” these things, as long as we’re willing to let go of them at any moment.

Second, we need to spend less time pursuing these things and more time seeking God. With our words we may say that God is our most pressing priority, but if our schedule books show that on most days we spend very little time on that pursuit, who are we fooling? Where our heart is, there our “To Do” list will be also.

Ultimately, we can’t “get” anything more out of our existence than what we “want.” And so we need to be careful what we want. Eventually, all of our alternatives come down to two choices: (1) We can live for no higher fulfillment than our worldly desires, and having gotten them, find ourselves still empty inside, or (2) we can hunger and thirst for righteousness and find ourselves “filled” where it counts the most (Matthew 5:6). To the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13,14). It’s worth asking whether we really believe that or not.

“Naught but God can satisfy the soul” (Philip James Bailey).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8,9).

AS WE REACH TOWARD GOD, WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE REACHING UPWARD. In every conceivable way, God is ABOVE us. His ways and His thoughts are as far above ours “as the heavens are higher than the earth.” Obviously, our wisdom and power are less than His, but what’s more important, our “authority” is less than His. He is the Creator; we are His creatures. He is the King; we are His subjects. He is far above us in every way.

HIERARCHY. It may not be in fashion nowadays, but the notion of “hierarchy” is a valid concept. Everywhere we look, from the physical cosmos to the animal kingdom, reality is ordered in hierarchies and structured in ranks. And somewhere deep inside, we understand that this is necessary and beneficial. It’s time we admitted that there is nothing inherently demeaning about occupying a lower rank than someone else in the larger scale of life.

HUMILITY. Accepting the fact that God is above us and we are under His rule, we need to have the humility to WELCOME His perspective, His thoughts, and His will for our lives. In our real-life decisions, we need to YIELD to the high wisdom that He alone has.

HAPPINESS. There are great benefits that flow from having the right attitude toward all that is around us, and it’s no exaggeration to say that the greatest happiness of all is that of taking our proper place in the vast scheme of God’s creation, gladly under His rule.

If the truth be told, we NEED something superior to us to yearn for and to reach toward. Though we often suppose that independence, autonomy, and equality are the things we need, what we really need is some One HIGHER than we — One in whose supremacy and sovereignty we may rest. Even in this life, security comes from having good rulers and good laws, and certainly in the life to come, what we long for is the perfect, benevolent rule of a King who is, as Paul wrote, eternal, immortal, and all-wise. To Him “be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).

“Man, whether he likes it or not, is a being forced by his nature to seek some higher authority” (Jose Ortega y Gasset).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“. . . and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation” (2 Peter 3:15).

PETER WROTE THAT WE OUGHT TO LOOK FORWARD TO OUR LORD’S RETURN, AND IF HIS RETURN IS DELAYED, LOOK UPON THAT DELAY AS THE VERY THING THAT MAKES OUR SALVATION POSSIBLE. There is no way around the fact that our salvation depends on the Lord’s longsuffering. If He were as impatient as we are, our opportunity for improvement would have run out long ago. If we end up being saved, we will owe that salvation to the Lord’s willingness to wait.

OPPORTUNITY FOR REPENTANCE. The Lord’s delay in returning is not license to enjoy our sins for a while longer; it’s an extended opportunity to get those things out of our character. Paul asked the pertinent question when he said, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

OPPORTUNITY FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH. In terms of our spiritual maturity, none of us is where we need to be. We need more time to grow, and that is just what the Lord is giving us with His longsuffering. While He waits, we must use every day as a day of growth.

OPPORTUNITY FOR EVANGELISM. Not only does the Lord’s longsuffering mean salvation for us, it can mean salvation for those around us too. The more time we have before the end, the more time we have to get His message out to others. Every day the world still stands is a day that must be used evangelistically.

When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, he used an expression that ought to suggest the most horrifying thing imaginable. He said, “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you NOT TO RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN” (2 Corinthians 6:1). Do we receive the grace of God in vain? To do that would be to WASTE the patience and longsuffering that God has shown us, ending up being lost despite the fact that God waited and waited and waited. If God has not yet come to judge the world that does not mean that He is indifferent to evil; it means that He is still holding the door of salvation open. His longsuffering is nothing less than our salvation. We are the world’s greatest fools if we don’t see that.

“Hell is God’s justice; heaven is his love; earth, his longsuffering” (Anonymous).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com