For thought and meditation

[rl69]

sorry I'm late. I got just over 3 hr sleep last night. Big doing down at the church last night. Then up early for services. Being tired in the service of the lord is a great thing



Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.—Psalm 139:16 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=2301d49123&e=3dd732485b)Many want to prolong this life as we know it, be it through stem-cell research, cloning, cryonics, or the latest lotion or potion. Medical science is helping us to live longer lives through life-saving operations and drugs to treat certain life-threatening diseases.

Yet while it is true that they can add years to your life, they cannot add life to your years. That is something only God can do.

Should our primary goal be merely to prolong our lives? I am reminded of a statement made by Jim Elliot. He lost his life at an early age preaching the gospel to the Auca tribe. In 1948, Jim wrote these words in his journal: "I seek not a long life but a full one, like You, Lord Jesus."

Life is not a matter of years. There are some who have lived long lives, but haven't lived full lives. It is not the years that count, but what we do with those years.

As tragic as it is to see a life that is "cut short," as we put it, there is a greater tragedy: living a silly, shallow, wasted life.

And is any life really "cut short"? Is not God the One who determines the length of our days? Does not Scripture say, "There is a time to be born and a time to die," and also "our times are in His hands"?

Job 14:5 says, "You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer" (NLT).

Today, let's seek not to live long lives, but full ones.

[USMC87]

A full life that is about the Masters business is the only life that is worth living!

[Boaz]

He will decide , nothing we can do will change that . We should do our best with what we are given . Time is always short .

[Blackwater]

What a great lesson today! And one we all need to re-learn, SO very often, too! A very good young man, age 25, recently died in the aftermath of the hurricane. It was a freak accident, wherein a large tree fell on his car, crushing it and him, as he went out after the storm had slacked off to see if he could help some friends. He'd been married only a few weeks before to a beautiful and good young woman. He'd been very active in his church, and was a devout believer and servant of the Lord, contributing in a number of ways where he saw any way to contribute his skills and efforts. His Mom and Dad are great Christians and pillars of their church. Why do these things happen? Who knows? The Lord does. Was there some horrible illness awaiting him if he'd lived? Were his new wife and parents freed from the pain of that? What was it that made the Lord choose to let him die that night? None of us know, or even CAN know. All we CAN do is trust the Lord, and His awesome love for us. And that's what faith is really all about - trusting God when we don't understand.

We'll never understand as the Lord does, because we simply don't have the knowledge or understanding that the Lord has. Yet, we still try to hang onto OUR wills instead of His! Faith isn't something that's automatically injected into us when we have a moment of "conversion." It's something we all have to learn, and it's a tough road for us all to learn faith. But it beats all the other options available to us! By a HUGE margin!

And it's also why it's so necessary and desirable that we "study to show thyself approved" right now. None of us is promised tomorrow. Not one. So it's what we do TODAY that matters. Delay is just giving in to our own wills, rather than His, and when we take the reins, and guide ourselves by OUR motivations, it always seems to end up so much worse than when we simply submit to His will instead. We THINK our wills will bring us "happiness," but they don't. Only compliance with God's will leads us to real satisfaction and edification and better understanding. But we have to trust him enough - have the faith - to LET him provide that edification and understanding and satisfaction. And that's always rather a biggie for us, and NOT easy! But it's always worth while. Always.