So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. — Psalm 90:12
I have read many stories during my life of people who were told their days were numbered. In some instances, it was stories of famous criminals. They knew that they were going to get caught, so they lived their life in peculiar ways. Some lived in hiding, while others lived the life of luxury. In either sense, many of them knew they were simply one day away from it all coming to an end.
Some other instances were when people had been given notice that their days here in this life would end soon. I’ve read stories about how some people took fantastic trips, spent their time with family and friends, or even did things they always wanted. They lived as though they knew they were not going to live forever.
That’s the idea behind this verse in Psalm 90. The Psalmist starts out by saying to teach us to number our days. In other words, teach us to live our lives as though we can see the end is just ahead. It’s living life as though we are not guaranteed tomorrow and making our lives count.
But it doesn’t stop there. The suggestion is that if we lived our lives as if our days were numbered, we would apply a different form of wisdom. One writer said, “if anyone knew when, and where, and how he was to die, it might be presumed that this would exert an important influence on him in forming his plans, and on his general manner of life.”
As we live our lives, we need to realize that our lives are but a vapor as God’s word says. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Our days are numbered. What we do each and every day matters. Our life should be driven with purpose of living each day for God, knowing that we may not have the opportunity tomorrow.
As you reflect today, do you live each day as if it may be your last to live for God? If you knew today would be the last opportunity you had to serve God, how would you spend it? What a challenge God’s word gives us to live our lives for God, not just when convenient, but each and every day.
Jared Dyson
Another Well Ministries
I've been in this mindset for a couple years now. However it's not in the context of my life coming to and end any day now, but rather our days are coming to an end. At least this version of our days anyways.
I've been shown judgement, separation, and wrath that is and will continue to happen. Sure it's possible that I'm wrong. But I've put lots of time in study and prayer and it all adds up to the same conclusion. The day of the Lord is at hand.
If I'm wrong so be it. The worse that comes from it, I draw closer than ever before to my Creator. Plus I stay busy doing the business of God's kingdom.
I can afford to be wrong, but many can't afford me being right. For that would mean many will perish and deny God Almighty and His servant's call to repentance before it's too late.
I'm called a bit extreme by others. If you really believed what I did and seen and understood what I have, I think many would be perceived the same way. There's not enough extremism in the sense of calling everyone's attention to the season we are in and what is on the horizon. Even so, it is written, it would be this way.
So in closing I do my best to live today as it's my last. No I don't do anything special as in spending extra special time with my loved ones or doing amazing things that I enjoy. But I go through my day, studying God's word and studying man's schemes and I try to let the Holy Spirit guide me to understand and try to warn. Whether it's on this forum or others. Whether it's calling up a old coworker or friend and sharing all the stuff I'm learning. Or by simply appreciating the mercy and grace God has shown on my little life, and thanking Him for it, knowing full well that I don't deserve one bit of it. So if today is my last, then I hope and pray just one will heed the warning and come on back home to their first love and allow their Father to fall on their neck, kiss them and welcome them back home.
...compelling testimony, nicely stated and framed...