Sunday, December 26, 2021

Appraising Your Life

Remember him — before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 (NIV)

IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE you took stock of where you are going, hasn’t it?  And how about an evaluation of the kids?  Or your marriage?  Or your own future?  You know what I mean: trimming off the fat of lazy thinking and taking a lean, hard look at your remaining years.

As I write, I’m now in my eighties.  If Christ doesn’t return (and I don’t die in the meantime), I figure I’ll keep going until I’m at least one hundred!  How old are you?  How many years lie between now and when you turn sixty-five or seventy years of age?  It’s about time you came to terms with your future, isn’t it?

If that doesn’t grab you, consider your family in the next decade.  Cynthia and I feel it was only last week when our home resembled a cross between Grand Central Station, the Indianapolis 500, and the San Diego Zoo!  That was long ago.  We now find ourselves with ten grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.  It’s amazing how quickly all that happened.  As the old newsreel used to say, “Time marches on.”

Consider Solomon’s wise counsel:

Remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken.  Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well.  For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
ECCLESIASTES 12:6-7

For what are you asking the Lord on behalf of your children and grandchildren?  I challenge you to stop long enough to make an honest appraisal of your life.  By the way, don’t just think about it . . . get alone and write down your thoughts, your dreams, your aspirations.  Refuse to let tonight’s television programs or some insignificant activity interrupt this necessary discipline.  If you put it off, you may lose the urgency you’re feeling right now.


{From Good Morning, Lord . . . Can We Talk? A Year of Scriptural Meditations by Charles Swindoll}

Sunday, December 12, 2021

To Worship God

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. ISAIAH 49:13

To worthily worship God as He desires to be worshiped, I must have absolute confidence in Him.  I cannot sit down with any person and enjoy fellowship if I have reason to fear he is out to get me or trick me or deceive me or cheat me.  My fellowship with Him must be based upon respect and confidence.  I have to trust him before I can have fellowship with him; and so when I go to God, I have to raise my affections and confidence to God.  In the presence of God, I must come without doubt and nervousness, without worry and fear that God will cheat me, deceive me or let me break down or do something wrong.  I need to be so convinced about God to the point that I can go into the presence of God in absolute confidence and say, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”

“With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And, “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.
CHARLES WESLEY (1707–1788)

[From My Daily Pursuit: Devotions for Every Day By A. W. Tozer]