What is the Measure of Our Days?

Ps 39:4–5
“O LORD, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah

Our time here is short.  We have a specific number of days we are to live, and they are not many.  The Psalmist here pleads with God to show him how fleeting his life is, and how short his days are.  The question for us, is not how many days we have, nor whether we’re going to use them for His glory (of course!), but the question is how dense we will cause them to be.

This world is about as distracting and detracting from God as He has allowed Satan to make it.  Our lives are filled with a never-ending source of distractions and time-leeches.  After a stressful day of work, who doesn’t want to sit down in front of the TV for an hour, or grab a game controller for a bit?  Or how about a phone, or even a rake?  All things are ours to enjoy, since we as sons of God have inherited the whole earth, but on the other hand, anything we do can become a time-sin, if it keeps us out of communion with God.

Is there any one of us, having died and looking down on how they spent their years, who will not wish they had not done more?  When we look our Savior in the face, and enter into eternal glory, will we not wish we had spent fewer hours in front of the TV, and more of them in the prayer closet and in the Word?  Let us spend some time each week then, and even each day, to consider how our use of the Lord’s time has brought glory to Him – for that should be, and should always remain, our whole aim.

One of Johnathan Edwards’ resolutions, which he reviewed weekly, was “Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.“  May that be our weekly prayer, as we minister to the community of Cedar Rapids.