Numbering Our Days
“Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  What do you suppose the psalmist meant by that line? He goes on to ask the Lord for compassion all day every day that “we may be glad for as many days as he has afflicted us” and ends the psalm by asking that God will “establish the work of our hands.”

I think the psalmist meant that we need to use our time – all our time – for the work that God has given us to do, whether we are healthy or afflicted with illness or injury. For example, I have been in a wheelchair since 1993, but that didn’t mean God had nothing left for me to do but sit and wait for the end of my life. (Thank you for the opportunity to offer these weekly devotionals - they are part of what God wants me to do.)

I know of too many people who say, “Oh, I’m too old to do anything more in the church. Let the young folks take over the work.” Nowhere do I find in the Bible that God has placed a retirement plan.

There is always something for every Christian to be doing, whether it be large or small . . . to “number our days aright . . . doing something that God has for us to do for Him. Whether we be nine or 99, as the Lord told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:11, He knows the plans he has for us - to give us hope and a future.

By Jim Newell, Glen Acres Baptist Church, Waterloo