Devotion
All of Our Days
by Lowell Urban
Why is it that I live as though my days on this earth are unending? I find it so easy to slip into that mindset. As I read Psalm 90 this morning I was humbled and reminded once again that my life is finite and full of trouble (strange that I need a Psalm to remind me that life is full of trouble). The irony of it all is that I am constantly investing in this life of trouble as if it is my eternity. I pour fervent effort into it as though it is the very treasure of contentment that my heart desires. Why am I so easily and repetitively deceived?
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of Your anger, and Your wrath according to the fear of You? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Just think this could be the last thing I ever write. However, since I am an adopted child of God’s then that is good news not bad! If I number my days, if I live this life as the journey rather than the destination, my heart will be wise. God will give me His eyes and His heart so that I may see and feel life from His perspective. What greater treasure could I possibly acquire here.
Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your glorious power to their children.
Give me this perspective all of my days, and I will find contentment and peace on this troublesome, afflicted earth. When I see His love for me in the morning all I can do is rejoice and be glad, even through the misery and evil of this sin torn life. God has unconditional love for me. What a fantastic message for my “prone to wander” heart. I just wish I could live like I really believed it.
Psalm 90 quotes are from the ESV
Posted by Lowell Urban at September 9, 2006 07:00 AM
There’s a Jonathan Edwards quote that I have hanging in my office: “I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the psalmist, Ps. 139:28 ‘My soul breaks for the longing it has.’” The breaking of my soul most often occurs when I see the disconnect between my desires to “live it out,” and then my own reality. Good reminder and good words.
One of the interesting aspects of being a (much) older Christian is the effect of that investing in this “life of trouble” on your heart. There is, first of all, the absolute knowledge that you will not live forever; a knowledge that you carry with you every day. This is displayed in all aspects of your life. A good example is my reading list. I simply won’t read bad, or even casual, books because it takes away time from better reading that I might not have time to read if I waste any time. This knowledge of your finiteness is accompanied by the accumulated knowledge of wasted days and wasted efforts that didn’t bring any aspect of contentment no matter how “successful” they were.
There is, however, a wonderful aspect that almost wasn’t possible for me when I was younger. The accumulated years makes you so much more aware of your “accumulated” sin. This in turn makes you so much more grateful and blessed by God’s mercy and forgiveness. Now, when I’m thinking, often judgmentally, of something someone else has done, I come up short and think, “I’ve done that; I’ve done worse than that.” This almost always turns me from my judgment and blessedly turns me toward God as I re-think it and realize that “I’ve done nothing. I’m forgiven.”