Are You Praying For Time?

Are You Praying For Time?

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READ Psalm 90:1-91:6

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SITUATION In the only psalm attributed to him Moses remembered his pain over the sins of the people (see Exodus 32:9-14).

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OBSERVATION Psalm 90 reminds us that we are only here for a brief time and that we should ask God to help us wisely make use of each day.

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INSPIRATION We sometimes act as if the Christian life is a retirement cruise. We have little fuel but lots of entertainment. We are more concerned with looking snappy than with being prepared. We give more thought to table settings than to surviving the journey. We give little thought to the destination, but we make sure there's plenty of silver to go around . . .

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Your Father is preparing a place for you. A place with many rooms. An ample place. A place with space for you. There is a special room for you. You will be welcome.

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We don't always feel welcome here on earth. We wonder if there is a place here on earth. We wonder if there is a place here for us. People can make us feel unwanted. Tragedy leaves us feeling like intruders. Strangers, interlopers in a land not ours. We don't always feel welcome here.

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We shouldn't. This isn't our home. To feel unwelcome is no tragedy. Indeed it is healthy. We are not home here. This language we speak, it's not ours. This body we wear, it isn't us. and the world we live in, this isn't home.

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Ours isn't finished yet.

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But when it is, our brother will come and take us home. "I would not tell you this if it were not true . . . .I will come back," he said before he left, "and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am" (John 14:2-3).

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General William Nelson was a Union General in the Civil War. Though he faced death every day, he never prepared for his own. Who knows what he was thinking as he rode into battle after battle? Maybe he was too busy staying alive to prepare for death.

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All that changed, however, one day as he was relaxing in a house with his men. A brawl broke out, and he was shot in the chest. Knowing he was dying, he had only one request: "Send for a clergyman."

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What had happened? Why the urgency? Did the general suddenly learn something about a God that he had never known? No. But he did learn something about himself. He realized death was near. Suddenly only one thing mattered.

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Why hadn't it mattered before? Couldn't he have said yes to God the week before or on that very morning? Absolutely. Why didn't he? Why was salvation of his soul so urgent after the shot and so optional before it? Why had he postponed his decision to accept Christ until his deathbed?

Because he assumed he had time.

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A dangerous assumption.

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"Teach us how short our lives really are," prayed Moses, "so that we may be wise" (Psalm 90:12).

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What fear strikes a man when the end is near and he's not prepared. (From A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado)

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APPLICATION What would you like to do before you die? What fulfillment will it bring you? When you die, what lasting effects, if any, will it have? Invest your time in people and projects that will last. Be a friend, share the gospel, mentor a young person, donate time or money to a Christian ministry or charity.

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EXPLORATION Humans are Finite -- Genesis 6:3; Job 34:14-15; Psalm 78:39; Isaiah 40:6-8; Matthew 26:41

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The Devotional Bible - Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, Max Lucado General Editor, Thomas Nelson Publishers, New Century Version.