Today, one-fifth of 2010 falls behind us. We’ve already consumed 73 days of the 365 allotted to us. Today, I’m pondering the following questions:
Have I accomplished 20 percent of what God placed in my life to accomplish this year?
Have I grown 20 percent of what God intended to grow me this year?
Have I read 20 percent of all God wants me to read this year?
Have I served 20 percent of all the service God calls me to this year?
Have I loved 20 percent of all the loving God positioned me to do this year?
Now we all know that life is full of variables and that most of those questions assume a steadiness, a consistency, that life doesn’t provide. But the questions remain a good reminder that the days of my life are:
1. Gifts from God.
2. Limited.
3. Opportunities for being, doing, and promoting good.
4. Opportunities for doing less than #3
Moses, after rehearsing the depressing reality of living life in the wake of man’s fall and God’s resulting wrath, requests from that God several interesting things:
So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
Do return, O LORD;
how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.
O satisfy us in the morning with Your loving-kindness,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen evil.
Let Your work appear to Your servants
And Your majesty to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And confirm for us the work of our hands;
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:12-17
I believe Moses’ first request very wise. I’ve written earlier about redeeming time(
http://tiny.cc/RedeemTime ), and it seems to me that the biggest battle I face is the battle to turn (redeem) time into good. Whether from good in me, good in my family, good in my church, or good in my world, I am easily sidetracked into selfish, shallow, and even sinful consumption of time. I need God’s help to see what the time of my life is given for, and then more of His help dedicating myself to doing just that.
The remaining requests seem equally wise. Moses has earlier described the burden of God’s wrath on the world of men, and here he seems to ask God to lift or circumvent the effects of that wrath. He asks for fresh revelation of who God is (return, loving-kindness, your work, your favor), a better “take” on life (satisfy us, sing for joy, glad), and that, rather than the frustration of working “by the sweat of your brow” and finding meaninglessness, he would see God bearing fruit in his labors.
Can any of us relate to Moses’ prayer? Can we relate to the desire for wisdom regarding time and its use? I wrote earlier (
http://tiny.cc/QuicklyPasses ) that we exist in time like a waterwheel exists in a stream. Just like the water goes by, harvested for its energy or not, so time goes by, harvested for good or not. Do we look for, think about, and then do all the good that God has “prepared beforehand?” Or do we leave undone some, or many, good words and good works that God had intended and gifted us to do? Or, worse yet, do we actually do evil in those instances where good was intended by God, because of our ignorance of His will, or the shallowness of our wisdom?
Can we relate to Moses’ desire for God to freshly reveal Himself? Do we serve, or have we served, a god who is actually a faded memory of the God who really is? Can we feel the lack of passionate love for God? Has our god become a theory, a worldview, or a set of talking points, instead of an almighty Person?
Can we relate to Moses’ desire for God to better his life, to “satisfy us in the morning with your loving-kindness?” How many mornings go by where we simply set our sights on the shallow, empty satisfactions that the world offers. Do we really believe that and live like true satisfaction can only be found in God?
Can we relate to Moses’ desire for God to favor us, and “confirm the work of our hands?” Most of us realize that someday the work of our hands will soon be passed through a fire? At that time, the work of our lives will be tried for its woodness, hayness, and strawness, or its goldness, silverness, and gemness (1 Cor 3:9ff)? Wouldn’t it be good for God to show us ahead of time that our work either would pass through that final fire, or would burn up in it? And having seen ahead of time, we could make changes in our lives, our efforts, our goals, or our methods.
Father, I see the wisdom in Moses’ prayer, but I lack the passion. Help me to want what you want out of my time in this life, in this world. Help me to see and do the good that you’ve placed around me to do. And help me to not miss the good, nor do evil in place of the good. Help me see my life with your eyes.
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