Have you ever given consideration to the stewardship of “the day?” By that, I mean, “What if today was not what you made it (as if you were master of the day) but an assignment to be discerned, carried out, and celebrated?”
I have been “the guy” who thought of the calendar as an obstacle rather than an opportunity; a challenge rather than a commission. If I could control the appointments, arrange the flow of activities, choose the level of energy needed for each encounter, delegate away some of the less significant tasks…THEN I could look back on the day and talk about all that I had done. What if though, I had an assignment in the day that was completely overlooked in the hustle and hurry of my effective administration?
Someone asked me recently about a weakness or struggle that I knew about myself. I responded that, at times, I moved too quickly through a room. Even when pastoring, my default was to maximize my time and get to the front and in position at just the right time. In fact, after watching one of my mentors engage the same crowds, I realized that I needed to intentionally slow down. I would often pray for the Lord to show me His divine appointments in the conversations that I might have along the way. Sure, I needed to be at the front when the clock struck 00:00, but I also needed to maximize the appointments that God might have along the way.
The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us that God is in the appointment business. He appoints everything under heaven.
1There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
Ecclesiastes 3:1, NASB95
Often, the moments that we pass through are appointments affecting eternity for others. That disabled vehicle on the side of the road. The conversation after prayers with your son as you tuck him in. The Car rider line. The chit-chat with a co-worker over lunch. Any one of these may be an appointment that affects eternity.
2for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
2 Corinthians 6:2, NASB95
Finally, since God assigns the moments and controls all of the circumstances, we can rejoice in every element of the day. We can be grateful for the traffic stall on the highway, or the appliance repair that we have to arrange on the hone. We can thank the Lord that our coffee order is delayed for a fresh pot that is being brewed. Each one of these moments is divinely appointed.
24This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24, NASB95
Today, the Lord will entrust you with 86,400 seconds. He has appointed some of them for eternal purposes. Make the most of every opportunity and rejoice…for the Lord made the day!
Time is almost up! That statement may bring a sense of dread or feelings of anxiousness. It may also bring a sense of hope. What is the difference? Perspective.
My first overseas assignment in the Army was to a one-year unaccompanied tour in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). We were given a “short-timer’s calendar on the first day of in-processing. It was a map (Think Candy Land or Chutes-and-Ladders) containing 365 squares and we were encouraged to check off the days until we redeployed to the US. As one neared the end of the line of squares, the anticipation of reunion with loved ones increased to a fevered pitch.
The same anticipated reunion carried with it a far different sense of anticipation on report card day when I was a boy in school. I always got low marks on classroom conduct. It seems I was a talker. Go figure! Watching the clock tick off the minutes until my dad came home…was dreadful. There would be an accounting for my conduct, and it would not be pretty.
Both incidents involve being reunited with family after time away. So, what is the difference? Anticipation is informed by perspective and perspective is shaped by what I did with the minutes leading up to the reunion.
I imagine it is that way with other disciples as they consider their reunion with Jesus. How they view that day is directly informed by what they did on this day and the day before. The Psalmist gives us insight on how to gain a perspective of longing and excitement as we anticipate our reunion with Christ.
12So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12, NASB95
First, he asks God to “so teach.” In Hebrew, this is not just a “transfer of information” type of teaching. It speaks of helping us to understand correctly how to make our days count.
Second, he prays for God to instruct on how to “number our days.” The word here speaks of reckoning…which is an accounting term. Think soberly about the accounting of the days ahead so that we will have the right perspective. When I was a younger man in my twenties, I was pretty much convinced of my near immortality. As I’ve aged, I recognize not only that I am not immortal, but that the day of my departure is much closer than ever before.
Third, he prays that the fruit of God’s right-teaching about the reckoning of days will result in presenting God with the fruit of one who has lived wisely.
Have you considered what it might look like to stand before Jesus. Pastor JD Greear recently said in a sermon that there will be two questions that are asked of every person who stands before God: What did you do with God’s Son? And, how did you manage the “stuff” entrusted to you? We often think of stewardship in terms of money. It is that, but it is much more. What did you do with your most precious commodity entrusted to you…the gift of time? Did you leverage it well for the glory of God…or twitter it away on less significant interests?
Teach us Lord to number our days so that we will prove to have been wise in how we managed them for your glory. Amen.
1God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.
Psalm 46:1-3, NASB95
How “real” is the Lord? That is a fundamental question for all of us. For many, God is a good luck charm: largely irrelevant to their day-to-day consideration but seemingly on call to be used to combat terrible consequences. For others, God is a retirement plan: Something you plan for but once you have it, you can rest easy and wait until later in life when it begins to payout. But God never reveals Himself as the “in case of emergency” contingency plan or the golden years’ support system. He reveals Himself and demands recognition as our present tense help.
Psalm 46 is one of those psalms that some Christians view in ways it was never intended. Verse 10 has graced many T-shirts and coffee mugs through the years. “Be still and know that I am God.” What is often left off is the purpose of God’s presence and our confidence— “I will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth.” Our confidence is in God’s victory, His glory, and His exaltation. We do not need to concern ourselves with the responsibility of conjuring up the glory of God. His glory and His purpose do not ultimately depend on us…but on the God who works in us! That does not mean that we are passive or apathetic. It simply means we are confident in the conclusion.
That confidence is at the heart of the verses above. Notice that God IS our refuge and strength. He is a “present tense” God for “present tense” obstacles.
God is OUR refuge and strength. God is not the protector of all people. He is not the “safe place” for every person. Any confidence that brings comfort comes first from the covenant—God’s covenant promises toward us.
As certain as God IS, so apparently are our troubles. Troubles are part of life. This flies in the face of those who claim that a faithful life for God prevents difficulties. Jesus Himself said that troubles were the reality for all His people in this life (See John 16:33).
How can we rest in the help God promises and find any sense of peace in it? That’s the point inferred in our text. Not even nature is a source of concern for us because God is master over nature. You only have to live through a natural disaster to realize how overwhelming they can be. I have had a couple of events involving floods and can tell you that when waters rage, there is no resisting. I have had friends who have ridden out hurricanes or earthquakes and spoken of the terrible fright they endured. Obviously, these experiences have been on the tame side. None of them have been F-5 Tornadoes, Cat 5 Hurricanes, or Mt. Vesuvius-like eruptions. Yet each of these are under the absolute authority and care of God. And He has always reigned over them. Or might I mention the global flood of Noah’s day or the swallowing of the people Korah (See Numbers 16:31-33). God has caused the sun to stand still in the sky, held back the seas, and controlled the storms. If He can do these things, He is sovereign over our troubles. He is sufficient for our protection and peace. He is imminently helpful when we are at our end.
But we must NOW be His and treat Him with the honor and reverent obedience He commands.
Have you ever reflected on how our view of sin differs from God’s? We develop shades and grades of sin. At times we can wink at sin. We accept it, not only in the culture but in ourselves. We proclaim it in such a way that, at times, we may be “low-key” minimizing sin’s damnable presence in our lives. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23),” we preach! Since everyone has done it, it can’t be that big of a deal…right?
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23, NASB95
One of the “tools” of my devotional time that I took off the shelf this year is The Valley of Vision. It is a collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. I am not a Puritan. Puritans did not have the market cornered on devotion and prayer to God. Still, the deep contemplative heart of these prayers give insight to a way of thinking of God that is helpful for those desiring to walk more closely. Notice this excerpt, which I have updated in several places to modernize the language.
Deliver me from the natural darkness of my own mind, from the corruptions of my heart, from the temptations to which I am exposed, from the daily snares that attend me. I am in constant danger while I am in this life; let [your] watchful eye be upon me for my [defense]… Until I finish my course with joy may I pursue it with diligence, in every part display the resources of the Christian, and adorn the doctrine of thee my God in all things.
The Valley of Vision, 25.
The substance of the prayer reflected an awe of God and His sovereign right and rule in the world; a dependence on God to guard against sin, and a desire that one’s life be a perfect reflection of the God who lovingly and loyally reigns.
Of particular interest to me was the mindset of fear that man might fall in some way into sin against God. Let that settle for a moment and then ask yourself, “Do I fear sinning against God?”
Notice some “select passages about sin and how it is to be dealt with:
31“I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32“You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. 33“They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Exodus 23:31–33 (NASB95)
God said to eradicate the presence of temptation to sin from our midst!
17“But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the Lord your God. To even hang out with Hittites or Jebusites may open us to their teaching about acceptable actions to their gods.
Deuteronomy 20:17–18 (NASB95)
11Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
Psalm 119:11 (NASB95)
Treasure the Word of God so that it will give the foundation to keep us from any sin!
28“Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
Mark 3:28–29 (NASB95)
Beware of sin, especially such that you might not be forgivable!
4You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
Hebrews 12:4 (NASB95)
Fight against sinning, even to the point of shedding blood!
God does not wink at sin or simply wash over our failures. He never diminishes His view of it. To redeem us from its consequences, He sent His most valuable agent, His own and only Son to die in our place as settlement for the judgment against our sin! God hates sin! He has reserved His wrath for it…
If God should so hate sin, should we not also? Should we not immediately join with the Puritans and fear even allowing the minutest of sins (from man’s perspective) to ever be named about us?
Sin is deadly. One last story: On my first overseas mission trip, I went to South Africa. There I was introduced to one of the deadliest species of snakes on the planet. After hearing all of the legends about this snake, honestly, it was a little difficult to sleep soundly just at the mere consideration that this snake had made its way into my presence. Fear. I don’t imagine that even having a vial of antivenom in my pocket would have given me the boldness to not be ever mindful of its presence. Sin is more deadly. We should treat it likewise.
30What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Himwill not be disappointed.”
Romans 9:30-33, NASB95
What a powerful and troubling statement in Verse 33. Jesus, God’s appointed Messiah and His only Son, was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Paul cites the prophet Isaiah from Isaiah 8:14. Notice:
13“It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread. 14“Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15“Many will stumble over them, Then they will fall and be broken; They will even be snared and caught.”
Isaiah 8:13-15, NASB95
How can faith be a stumbling block? Simply put: We want to be righteous apart from a Savior. We want to earn it, to deserve it, to have contributed to our own right-standing. To say that we MUST have a Savior is to declare that we are completely unworthy of God on our own. As the old hymn writer, Charlotte Elliott composed in her hymn, Just as I am in 1835, on the posture of the sinner coming to God for salvation:
Just as I am, without one plea
But that thy blood, was shed for me
And that thou bidd’st me come to thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
You need a Savior. You are completely unsavory to God. You are not cute in your disobedience. You are not a little lovely. You are a wretch! Your very best efforts on your very best day is like a soiled bandage worthy only of being discarded.
Yet, while you were as unlovely as you could possibly conjure up, God saw you through a different lens. Not in response to your attributes but in resolve to His own activity. He made whole and perfect ever person who would yield to and trust in Jesus’ death as payment for their own sins. God sees perfection all over you if you have believed in Jesus. Why? Because Jesus covered you. He placed His robe of perfection over your soiled life and satisfied in the eyes of God all that was wrong with you, making you right and perfect in every way. There is no other way to have access to this kind of righteousness, and, for those who have it, there is no greater gift we can receive.
When was it that you were most aware of the nearness of God? Was it at the place of celebration…when you just landed that new client or when you sank the “hole in one that had eluded you all your life? Was it when you received all good feedback during your physical examination? Or, perhaps, was it in the valley of life? In the throes of trying, testing, and troubling times?
Psalm 42 is a beloved and rich text. However, I wonder if we find ourselves reading it like “busy Americans,” grabbing a “bumper sticker” phrase and moving on.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
What a great statement…” God, I long for you in the same way that a deer longs for water.” Granted, the daily concerns of a deer in the wild are considerably different than our own. Something to eat, something to drink, and a place to rest top the list of average daily concerns. Of course, avoiding predators, including those in “blaze orange” sitting quietly in a stand overlooking an opening with scattered corn on the ground, is always in season. So, what makes a deer pant for water…and what is causing David to long for God…His person and presence, not merely His provision, in the same way?
It’s trouble. The deer doesn’t long for water while standing beside the lake. The deer doesn’t even consider tomorrow’s meal while standing in a field of suitable food. It is in the arid realities of trouble that we sense our need for good and long for His presence the most. Notice with me:
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
3My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
Psalm 42:2-3, NASB95
O my God, my soul is in despair within me…
Psalm 42:6, NASB95
9I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?
Psalm 42:9-11, NASB95
In the despair of tears, in the crushing weight of struggles and oppression, and in the crosshairs of discouraging accusations…that the Psalmist, David, cries out to God.
Now David is no stranger to God. He is no twice-a-month church attendee who answers every question in his small group with “Jesus, God, and the Bible.” Yet, the weightiness of his troubles drives him to the very doorstep of the throne room with a longing cry for God’s attention.
By the way, that is the prescribed response. When trouble arises, God calls us to run to Him! How does he do so? After all, there must be some direction more than the boasting of a religious platitude…
David rehearses to himself the times when God met him. While worshipping in the assembly of the saints (Ps 42:4). David remembers the evidence of God’s fulfilled promises and the vastness of His glory (Ps 42:6). David preaches to his own soul the truth of God’s character (Ps 42:5b, 8, 11b).
David sees the Lord as His rock…the solid and immovable foundation on which to stand and to which he is to tether his life. He sees God in this way because of His experience, but he realizes it afresh in his troubles (Ps 42:9a).
We often want to avoid troubles…but they are such precious instruments that take us to the place of despair that we would not choose for ourselves. It is in that place that we find the delight of the Divine, the peace of God’s presence, and the hope of His healing.
CH Spurgeon said, “I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.” May we do likewise as we learn to thank God for the triumph that comes through the troubling times of life.
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