Help Us Number Our Days
Help Us Number Our Days
From my living room, I’m looking out on the deck at my busy hungry birds. We’ve gained quite a crowd these days. Crowd because there is a large variety of birds stopping for a turn at the feeder. They have not a care in the world. During the rain and storms, they swarm the feeders getting ready for a time in the trees to hunker down until the winds pass.
As I consider the birds I’m confronted with the reality that sometimes my actions would indicate I too have not a care in the world. But quickly I am reminded that time is fleeting. It is precious.
Time, however, is not renewable.
You think you have plenty and suddenly the week has gone by. We ask ourselves “where did the time go?” Or “how did the time get away from me?”
It is so easy to allow our days to be a blur of insignificance and then wonder, how.
We are here for but a short time. Not long really in the scope of eternal life.
A friend of mine and I were discussing time and our lives. She at the time was in her 60’s. She was a double widow and was now considering her remaining life. She said “I have so much I want to do. I have so much I feel that God has trained me for and so much I have a vision for. But…there is so little time left. For sure I’m 60% through my life and perhaps more.” My friend had two husbands die. One died after 30+ years of marriage and the second six months after they married. The second died from cancer. For Gail, the numbering of her days was real and very clear.
We talked for a bit and discovered an old truth:
We have a limited time in these human bodies. I recently heard a powerful quote that embodies our understanding listen:
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
It brought us to King David’s prayer:
“Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Relent, Lord! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.”
Psalm 90:12-17 New International Version (NIV)
Yes, in this life we will have trouble. This is true. Jesus tells us this can be expected. But to have joy because he has overcome the world.
It is not about the trouble. It is about God’s favor on our lives. His establishing the work of our hands. God helping us to number our days that we will gain wisdom to know what to do in the time we have here in these human bodies.
Fulfilling the purpose in our lives with passion regardless of our circumstances comes when we “number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” As we pray “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us,” we are submitting to God our agenda, our will, our rights and asking for His plan and purpose in our lives. For me, it’s being mindful of where I spend my time. Do I allow for God interruptions in my day? Do I get “deer in the headlights” when I have too much on my plate and then get none of the things done? Do I take on projects to stay in the mix of things but it’s not where God’s plan is for my life? Do I take on more than I am meant to because I don’t say no? Do I say no when God really meant for me to say yes?
Do I plan my day and ask God to bless it or ask God for the plan and for Him to teach me His way?
Our days are much richer when we get God’s direction first. It means that sometimes, we take risks and get out of our comfort zone. Perhaps we reach out where we would normally be content in our own routine. When we ask God to teach us His way we find there is incredible value brought into our lives and those lives we are privileged to touch.
I think of Jeff Foxworthy and his volunteering leading a group of homeless men in Bible Study every Tuesday morning. I’ve heard him speak about it and the passion and love he gets to experience is irreplaceable. He speaks of how he considers the time he has and asks God to guide and maximize what he does. It was simply deciding he wanted to do more and asking God for the opportunity. The group started with 15 and has grown to over 100. Jeff says that if addicts among the group successfully complete treatment the organization will house them for a year and offer counseling and support in reuniting them with their estranged families. This was not a part of Jeff’s upbringing. It’s a part of his relationship with God. It is God helping him be wise with the number of his days.
It is not about works it’s about the relationship. It’s about realizing we really are spiritual beings having a human experience. Knowing that our time here is just a whisper of time and grasping that only God knows its length and breadth. He knew us before He knit us in our mother’s womb.
Jeremiah tells us:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;”
Jeremiah 1:5a English Standard Version (ESV)
He knows the plans He has for us to bless us and not harm us. Jeremiah later says:
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 English Standard Version (ESV)
The key: seek God with all of our heart and we will find Him. Ask Him for His plan and He will show us. Pursue His ways and He will teach us. Ask God to “help us to number our days” and He will grant us wisdom.
Today are you willing to ask God to help you to number your days?
