Teach us to number our days!

"Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should" (Psalm 90:12 TLB).

"Each day receives an inheritance from yesterday, and at its close passes it down to the day which comes after...In countless ways yesterday's life and today's are intertangled. Each day is but a little section of a great web, containing one figure of the pattern, the warp running through all the days and years. A life is a serial story, opening with infancy, closing with death, and each day is one little chapter in the story" (J.R. Miller).

"[Moses] chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time" (Hebrews 11:25). Moses understood values. He renounced rank and royalty, "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" Hebrews 11:10. He chose the worst of religion to the best of the world. The pleasures of sin are for a very short time but God's love is everlasting.

There is within life an infrastructure that demands decision. Our foundation can crumble with a momentary gratification; it can also be strengthened when we choose to weigh the consequences. The eye of faith sees beyond the present amusements to the eternal rewards of joy. Egypt's gold cannot compare with the prospective delights of the Holy City. So Moses could number his days and spend them with the people of God. His priorities were in order. Never again was Moses troubled about the warp and woof of life.

"[We] also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when [we] do not expect him" (Luke 12:40). So the better part of wisdom is to know how to spend our days and hours most profitably for God, for others and for ourselves. God guarantees the interest on His loan of life to us!