One day. 24 hours. 1440 minutes. 86,400 seconds. And what do we fill our day with? I’m not talking about just work or house cleaning and things like that. Is our day filled with laughter and smiles? Is our day filled with expressing love, giving, and showing kindness? Is our day filled with joy and praise? Is our day filled with compassion and forgiveness? Or is our day filled with worry and stress? Is our day, instead, filled with complaining and pessimism? Is our day filled with heartache and grief? Is our day filled with bitterness and unforgiveness? What if at the end of the day a spreadsheet showed—by numbers or charts—how our day was filled? Will it please us with the tabulation?
The Bible reminds us of God’s mercies. The major verse of reminder is found in Lamentations 3:22-23, “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
Our lives are not our own (see Jeremiah 10:23 NLT and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20); we are not masters of our destinies. And because of this, our attitudes, decisions, and devotion to what we deem important may or may not please God. What if we were to even know that all that we toil was vapor? “LORD, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor,” says Psalm 39:4-5.
Earlier today a brother and I were sharing about the measure of life. Some people’s lives for the Lord are short—Robert Jermaine Thomas, John the Baptist, Keith Green to name a few—while other people live decades for Jesus—Billy Graham, Wayman Mitchell, Hudson Taylor. When viewing our lives, what is it that we give ourselves to? Jesus warns that we waste so much time with worry and fear (see Matthew 6: 25, 28, 31, and 34). Solomon continues on the same plane as Jeremiah in Lamentations to remind us in Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (MSG translation), “Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don’t skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it, for there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think in the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed.” Paul picks up on this to declare in Colossians 3:23-24, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”
Think of it this way, at 12 midnight begins a new day for everyone. From that moment until 11:59:59 pm, 86,400 seconds tick by. God fills our life’s bank account with that. What are we doing to spend that account? Is it all on ourselves? Or are we taking that time and financial resources God has entrusted with us by giving it to the Kingdom of God? (We have in our possession today money. It may be in the form of a check. It may be cash. It may be in the bank account. It may be forgotten or intentional to not give. What will we do? “Tick, tick,” as the clock goes. Were these moments wasted on ourselves or invested in a life for the Lord and/or given to the church? “Tick, tick, tick.” What did we do with our day?)