Orient your fragile life by the North Star of eternity

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Leviticus 24,25; Psalm 38

TO CHEW ON: “My heart pants, my strength fails me;
As for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.” Psalm 38:10

It doesn’t take much to knock the breath out of us. An accident, a natural disaster, or a bout of sickness (as David seems to be suffering in this psalm) and we are flat on our backs and wondering if we’ll see next month, let alone next year.

Bible imagery of the brevity and fragility of life brings home the sobering facts. A lifespan is referred to as a shepherd’s tent and a weaver’s loom (Isaiah 38:12), grass and field flower (Isaiah 40:6), and a faded leaf carried away by the wind (Isaiah 64:6).

God is aware of our slightness: “He remembered that they were but flesh, / A breath that passes away and does not come again” (Psalm 78:39); “He knows our frame;/ He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14).

But are we as aware? Most of the time, probably not. But when our lives are threatened (as David’s was by Saul - 1 Samuel 20:3), or we get sick (Psalm 38:10-12), suddenly we’re face to face with our mortality.

These can be depressing thoughts. However,  the facts of our fragility, brevity and apparent futility lose their power to get us down when we shine on them our hope of spending eternity with God. I love how Paul expresses this hope in 2 Corinthians 5:

“For while we are still in this tent, we groan under the burden and sigh deeply—weighed down, depressed, oppressed; not that we want to put off the body (the clothing of the spirit), but rather that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal (our dying body) may be swallowed up by life [after the resurrection]” - 2 Corinthians 5:4 AMP.

Whether life is good for us now and we would love for it to go on like this indefinitely or we’re down and seemingly at death’s door, let’s hang onto the fact that when life here ends (which it will for all of us sooner or later) it’s not all over for us. And let’s orient our lives by the North Star of life in eternity with God:

“Therefore, whether we are at home [on earth away from Him] or away from home [and with Him] we are constantly ambitious and strive earnestly to be well pleasing to Him” - 2 Corinthians 5:9 AMP (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to orient my life here and now by the coordinates of eternity with You in heaven. Amen.
 
PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 38


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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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