×

A Prayer About My Numbered Days

    “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. Psalm 39:4-7

     Sovereign and faithful Father, though I have no desire to know the exact day or means by which you will take me home, I do have a greater passion to live with that day in view. Because the gospel is true, I have no fear of dying. I really, really do believe that to be absent from my body will mean that I am immediately present with you. The sting of my death has been removed. The grave has been robbed of its victory over me and my body. I can honestly say with Paul, “better by far to depart and be with the Lord.”

     But also, because the gospel is true, I have a high regard for living! I’ve spent enough years is bustling about… in vanity… in heaping up stuff that will only end up on the ash heap one day. Father, how can I best invest and spend the rest of my days in this world? Should you give me one more… ten more… twenty-five more years, how can the gospel of your kingdom and the riches of your grace claim and fill the span of those very brief years?

     What do I need to make a bigger deal about… and a lesser deal of? What things do I simply need to let go of… some of the hurts, injustices, wounds that will take heaven to fully heal anyway? Who should I be spending more time with, Father, and quite honestly, who should I be spending less time with?

     Father, I know that there are two things that define the rest of history, as we know it: your commitment to redeem your pan-national people through the gospel and your commitment to make all things new through Jesus. How do you want me to engage with both of those stories?

     Indeed, give me a fresh and greater love for people who don’t know Jesus, Father. I spend way too much time just with other Christians. I’m not an evangelist, but like all of your children, you’ve called me to gossip the gospel all the time… in word and deed.

     And help me live more intentionally as an agent of redemption and restoration. With what issues and places of brokenness and evil would you have me engage? If I don’t think about spending my life, it will be spent for me. I know that the new heaven and new earth will only arrive with the return of Jesus, but the new creation world has already begun with his resurrection. A so very Hallelujah, to that bit of good news!

     What do I now look for, Lord? So very indeed, my hope, my only hope is in you. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ reigning and returning name.

LOAD MORE
Loading