The Days Of Our Lives

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Psalm 90:9-17
9 For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a sigh.
10 The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD!
How long?
And have compassion on Your servants.
14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Our life on earth is very limited. It can be cut shorter by the anger of the Lord. And it can fade away like a whisper or a vapor.

Our lifetime is 70 years. If we are healthy, we may live to be 80. But our years are full of hard work and pain. They pass quickly, and then we are gone.

Who knows the full power of the anger of God? His anger is as great as the fear of the Lord that all of us should have. Thus, we need to learn and understand how short our lives really are so that we may wise up before God.

We need to see the goodness and grace of the Lord in our lives again. We need Him to fill us with His mercies every morning. Then we will sing of His love, and rejoice in the Lord always.

We have seen the years of troubles filled with problems, plagues and pains. Now we need Him to turn our sorrows into joys! We need Him to turn our mourning into dancing! We need to see the wonderful things of the Lord again in our lives! We need to stand in awe of Him, and proclaim how great our God is! When God is pleased with us, we will be fruitful in all that we do! His blessings will be overflowing to us and our families!

Malachi 3:13-18

The People Complain Harshly
13 “Your words have been harsh against Me,”
Says the LORD,
“Yet you say,
‘What have we spoken against You?’
14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God;
What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance,
And that we have walked as mourners
Before the LORD of hosts?
15 So now we call the proud blessed,
For those who do wickedness are raised up;
They even tempt God and go free.’ ”

A Book of Remembrance
16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another,
And the LORD listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the LORD
And who meditate on His name.
17 “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts,
“On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
18 Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him.

Very often, we have spoken against the Lord. We have said terrible things about Him. We have said that it is useless to serve God. What is the use of doing what He requires? What is the use of coming before the Lord in repentance? What is the use of saying sorry for the things that we have done?

As many of us often live by sight and not by faith, we observe that the proud and ungodly people are enjoying their lives. They seem to be very successful, prosperous and happy! These evil people not only prosper, but they test the patience of the Lord with their evil deeds, and get away with it.

But there are a few of us that live by faith and not by sight! Those of us who fear the Lord will speak to one another, and the Lord will listen and hear what we say. In His presence, a record of those who fear the Lord and respect Him will be written in a book of remembrance.

We will not just fade into obscurity. God remembers! Like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David, our names will be written in His book! Some names are known, and some names are unknown! But we will be the people of God. On the day when God acts, we will be His very own. He will be merciful to us as parents are merciful to their children. Once again His people will see the difference between what happens to the righteous and to the wicked! There is a great difference between those who serve the Lord, and those who do not.

1 John 2:15-17
Do Not Love the World
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

We need to stop loving this evil world and all that it offers us. If we love the world, we do not love the Lord. Everything that belongs to the world does not come from the Lord. Those sinful and selfish desires, those impulses to grab and buy what our eyes see and want, and those things that the worldly people are so proud of - all of them come from the world. And this world is fading away. And these evil and forbidden things will go with it. But those who keep doing the will of God will live forever.

1 Corinthians 10:31
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

In everything we do, let us do all for God's glory.

Written on 31 December 2021