Number Our Days

Psalm 90:12

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

There are multiple places in scripture which talk about the brevity of our lives on earth, but this one stands out to me because Moses (who authored Psalm 90) attributed a gain of wisdom to an awareness of that brevity. 

Or, as some would call this, living in light of eternity—to live this earthly life with our heavenly one in mind.

No wonder this causes us to gain a heart of wisdom.

Living our lives on earth with an acute awareness of the brevity of this life and the permanence of the next one will directly impact the choices we make. It will directly impact the way we interact with people, the way we make decisions, the way we spend our time, the way we spend our money, etc., etc., etc.

But sometimes we need help.

We need God to teach us to number our days, so that we do live in light of eternity—so that we do gain a heart of wisdom.

Since we only have one shot at this life on earth, we don’t want to waste it. We want to accomplish what God has ordained for us to accomplish. We want to spend our time and money on things that will prove valuable for eternity, not merely for our time on earth. 

When we get to the end of our brief lives, our regrets are going to have nothing to do with what we did not accumulate—things or accolades or positions. Our regrets will lie in the opportunities for the personal impact of others and for the eternal kingdom of God that we neglected to seize because we were too preoccupied with our lives on this side of Heaven. 

Oh Lord, thank you for the promise of eternity. Please teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Please teach us to live in light of eternity, and help us to have the impact here that we were created to have. Amen.