Psalm 90:12

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (NRSV).

I can remember when I was younger—much younger—a conversation that I had with my precious mother. She told me that once she was grown, it seemed like “inside” she hadn’t aged. Even though she knew her body was aging, her mind still felt like a young woman And she commented that the years had seemed to pass so quickly. Of course, then she seemed so much older than I and I really didn’t understand what she had said. But now as I’m approaching another birthday, I totally get it!

I remember also another conversation that I had with my aunt, a wonderful Christian minister who traveled all over the world and whose songs touch the hearts of literally millions. In her 80's I can remember her telling me that the older she got, the more she realized how much she still had to learn about being a Christian, how little she actually knew. I remember thinking that if she only knew a little about being a Christian, I didn’t know anything. But now, again as I’m getting older, I understand what she was saying and thinking . . . because there’s so much about being a Christian that I’m just now getting and so much I still have to learn.

One of the things I’m learning is how fleeting life is. Oh, I know that when we’re young, we think that time will never pass. We measure our lives by the things we haven’t yet done but still want to do:

When I get to Disneyland
When I graduate from high school
When I get my degree from college
When I get married
When I have a child
When I get that job
When I accomplish that (whatever)

The anticipation of wanting and waiting can make time seem like it passes so slowly and we think we will never “arrive.”

Other things in life make time weigh heavy on our hands: trials and tribulations, those things which weigh us down with the worry and anxiety. We become obsessed with the worries of life, focusing on the problems and how we think we might change them. I know that I often become so fixated that I forget to pray, that I forget that every part of my life—every moment—belongs to the Lord and I exhaust myself trying to solve that which is only possible for Him.

The fact is that we may never arrive at our goals and we may never solve the problems that press in around us.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”(Matthew 6:34 NRSV).

When my beloved mom went home to heaven, I had the task of cleaning out her work room. I found three dresses that she had been making for a trip. This was a trip that she greatly looked forward to, going to the Bay area and speaking on a friend’s Christian television show. One dress was almost done except for the hem. One dress was begun, with work still to do, and one dress was just the fabric cut out. As I packed up the dresses, I could imagine her working, even a bit frantically, enjoying the creative task of sewing, but knowing that she was under a time deadline to get them done. And then . . . she was gone! Home to heaven and the deadlines with her. She didn’t need the dresses anymore and didn’t care about them because she was with her Lord!

We are only promised today and the Father is only concerned with what we do on this day. He is only concerned with the lives we’ll touch, with the commandments we’ll obey, with the love we’ll show, with the offenses we’ll forgive, with His presence that we’ll enjoy. The wisdom of which the psalmist speaks, I believe, is the wisdom that comes in understanding what is important and what is not.

Yesterday, we finally got water to our home (after almost a week without it). The house, dishes, and clothes were amazingly dirty, piled up everywhere and I was, a bit frantically I must admit, starting the dishwasher and washing machine, grabbing rags and cleaner to tackle the kitchen, and looking a bit overwhelmed at all that needed to be done. In the midst came a call from some friends who needed to talk to us, who needed ministry and love. We could have said “no” and they would have understood, but that wouldn’t be wisely counting our days. The purpose of life isn’t to leave everything clean and finished. We will never do it! We can’t clean ourselves up and we will never finish the tasks demanded of us. Only the Lord Jesus can do that and He already did it when He announced, “It is finished,” from the cross. Aside from that, all the rest of this is just stuff!

I’m learning to grasp onto what is important and to leave the rest aside. And what is important? Grasping onto Him! Pleasing Him! Praying, studying the Word, being ready in and out of season to love on those around me.

Nothing else really matters.

“For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. . . . How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (1 Corinthians 15:53, 57 NLT).

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Hebrews 4:15-16

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (NRSV)

We know that Father God is spirit. God Himself is an entity whose like we cannot even begin to fathom. He has “appeared” in scripture as a burning bush, as a disembodied voice, as brilliant jewels. John described Him as thus:

“At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald” (Revelation 4:2-3 NRSV).

Daniel described Him:

“As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took His throne, His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and flowed out from His presence” (Daniel 7:9-10 NRSV).

These are amazing descriptions, but they are beyond my understanding. This is a God Who is far beyond me, with whom I cannot begin to have a relationship because He is so far beyond and I am so small. But this very God, understanding the enormous limitations of the creations (humans) He had made, also became a man, the God-man Jesus. And He continues to exist as this God-man, as one who can fully relate to me, having been through life as I am living it and now sitting glorified in heaven, as one day I will also be glorified because of Him.

A. W. Tozer writes:

“Now, at this very moment, there is a Man in heaven appearing in the presence of God for us. He is as certainly a man as was Adam or Moses or Paul. He is a man glorified, but His glorification did not dehumanize Him. Today He is a real man, of the race of mankind, bearing our lineaments and dimensions, a visible and audible man whom any other man would recognize instantly as one of us” (The Warfare of the Spirit).

That God would love me enough to not only die for me, but to become what I am, to bridge the gap with His own nature, is amazing. Of course, it doesn’t mean that He sinned as I have sinned, but He experienced life as I have experienced it with all the temptations, pains, and tribulations. He was hungry, tired, stressed, and betrayed. He has experienced it all and fully understands what I am going through now. Not only that, but having experienced what I have experienced, He was able to persevere through without sin, thus providing me a role model. When He was persecuted, He forgave. When He was alone, He looked to the needs of others. When He was tired, He secluded Himself in prayer. His life alone is all that I need to learn how to live to please God. He is indeed my High Priest, my Friend, and my Savior.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

2 Peter 1:5-11

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (NKJ)

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5 NKJ).

Peter and Paul are the two great foundational warriors of the Church, Peter leading the apostles into the new era with the Holy Spirit and Paul establishing most of the theology upon which our doctrines are established. Both write about persecution, about suffering, and both agree that, as believers, we are to glory in that suffering. The NLT says this: “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure” (Romans 5:3). There is a sense that we should embrace our struggles, not because we are masochists and want to hurt, but because we know that God will use these struggles to mold our characters into the image of His Son.

Why is this so important? Peter tells us in the preceding verses:

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature” (v. 3-4 RSV).

Paul described the battle within believers, a battle that is spiritual and involves both the commands of God and the lusts of the flesh:

“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:15 NKJV).

As believers, we should want to do what the Word says. We should love our enemies. We should put aside sin. We should forgive and leave peaceably. We should witness the gospel to the lost. But often we don’t do those things. We hold onto anger. We seek revenge upon those who have hurt us. We turn to the things that make us feel good to assuage our pain and guilt. So the Lord, in His infinite love and mercy, allows into our lives those things which turn us toward Him. He allows pain, suffering, and persecution to that we “may escape from the corruption that is in the world.”

Peter tells us to “give all diligence” to this process. Diligence is defined as “a steady, earnest, and energetic effort.” Thus, the process to which Peter is calling us is something that we do all the time, that we do with all of our hearts and desire, and which requires energy and effort. It isn’t something that happens to us, but is rather an interactive process in which we are fully involved with the Holy Spirit.

I can remember an Internet conversation that I had with a woman some time back. She basically said that she was who she was, faults and all, and if and when God wanted to change her, He would. She wasn’t the least interested in working at the process of change herself. Yet, here Peter is fully explaining to us that we must be involved in the process of change and that this process will involve suffering.

The first thing that Peter tells us to do is to add virtue to our faith. Virtue is moral purity or excellence. It really means simply doing the right thing (which, as most of us know, is usually not the easy thing). It means telling the truth, being kind and gentle, choosing the honest decision, abstaining from a vast multitude of behavior. We don’t see much virtue in our society today. It may be even difficult to think about what is the right thing to do. Often, what we have been taught (or seen through either our own families or through the media) is actually the wrong thing to do. In order to find out what is virtuous we need to know what the Bible says and then be willing to do it in every part of our lives.

It’s interesting that Peter puts virtue before knowledge. In a sense what he is saying is that we can’t understand the deeper things of Christianity until we understand the basics of right and wrong. As long as we are involved with habitual sin, the discernment of the deeper things of God will remain hidden from us. The writer of Hebrews speaks to this:

“About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil” (5:11-14 NRSV).

We must be trained to distinguish good from evil, trained not only understanding what virtue is, but applying it to our lives. We cannot understand or discern the deeper things of God until we not only understand good from evil, but have practiced it in our own lives! Paul tells us, in Romans, that “tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character.” It is suffering (tribulation) that forces us to persevere. And this isn’t necessarily even an external force, but an internal one. It is like a track that we must travel, at track that doesn’t allow us to turn to the left or the right, but forces us to continue in one direction, that direction being obedience to God. Oh, we can make the choice to escape the suffering, but if we do, we lose the opportunity to develop perseverance. And it is that perseverance that develops character (virtue) in our lives. If we want to move on to the deeper things of God, if we want to mature as Christians so that we are able to reach out to those around us with true spiritual maturity and teaching, then we must be willing to push through the suffering, to persevere through it, to reach on to the higher and deeper things of Christ.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.