Christmas 2008 is 4 days away, 2009 is 10 days out...with every passing year time seems to accelerate. In my sane moments Psalm 90:12 rings louder and louder..."So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom." My Mother died in 1996 and my Dad recently went to be with the LORD...the night he died, after crying, praying, and talking to Diane the thought that rang out in my heart and mind was "you're next." IF I live to the age of my Dad I have 11,300 days to go, IF I live to my Mom's age I have about 5,400 days remaining. If you read Psalm 139 yesterday, and I pray that you did, you will find that God has determined how many days, hours, minutes and seconds we will spend on planet earth!
Psalm 139:16-17 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
You and I have a determined number of days! You might ask me why do I exercise, good question. I exercise because I have been given stewardship of this body, I am not my own I was bought with a price...remember! I believe I need to take good care of all the gifts God has entrusted to me, the side benefit is the quality of life experienced in the days HE has given me.
Sorry for the digression, the point is we are commanded to live lives worthy of the gospel (Phil 1:27, Eph 4:1), we have been commanded to be sober minded in this world (1 Cor 15:34, 1 Peter 1:13), right? How do we do this?
Zec 1:1-4 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 2 “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.
How do we do it? Repentance and faith, repentance and faith! The LORD speaks beautiful Words through Zechariah...RETURN TO ME...RETURN TO ME! I am fearful that we are doing the same thing that the Israelites did...remember Mt 23:35? "so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar." We may not murder anyone physically we simply don't pay attention!
How much time, real time do you spend in God's precious Word...I don't just mean reading your daily reading so that you can check a box I mean how much time do you, and how much time do I spend in HIS Word crying out to HIM to open the eyes of our hearts to HIS Word. How much time do we spend on our knees with the Word...crying out FATHER, you have my whole heart, you have my undivided attention? How often can I say that the Word of the LORD CAME TO MARK?
The God of the universe is speaking to you and I and HE is saying RETURN TO ME AND I WILL RETURN TO YOU!