Perspective

From yesterday's Christian Working Woman

Monday, May 12, 2008 - Numbering Our Days

How many days do you have left? That's a very sobering, somewhat unsettling question, isn't it? We don't like to think about the fact that our days here on this earth are numbered. Oh, we all know the number behind us–how many days we've lived already. But thinking about how many are left–well, that's not something we think about too often. In fact, most of us live as though our days are without number.

In Psalm 39 David wrote:

Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

And in Psalm 90 Moses prayed:

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

These men of God were not asking for a gift of prophecy, but rather for a change in perspective. They understood that living in the knowledge of how fleeting life is becomes a life-changing attitude, and they recognized that this attitude doesn't come naturally to anyone. So they prayed for the ability to number their days.

I would suggest that all of us need to pray this prayer daily: "Lord, teach me to number my days correctly." You see, how you number your days has everything to do with how you live your life! Let me try to illustrate this for you.

Let's say that you learn that a coworker has been given a promotion that you deserve. That is hurtful and your natural reaction is anger, retribution, self-defense. But suppose you knew you only had five more days here on this earth. Would that loss of promotion have much, if any, effect on you? No, I doubt it, because since your days are few, a lost promotion isn't really important, is it?

That's what David meant when he prayed "let me know how fleeting is my life." You see, this is an attitude that has to come from God because it is not a natural, human tendency to number our days aright. Moses prayed "Teach me to number my days aright," and we need to sign up for that course as well. It is an attitude that has to be learned and imposed into our lives, but when we learn this lesson, we gain a heart of wisdom.