As we grow older, time becomes a precious commodity. We begin to see
that time is fast passing by. When I was a child I thought that I would
never get grown and that the years were just creeping by. Now that I’m
much older, I can look back over my life and see and wonder why I wasted
so much time. Last Christmas my wife asked me after Christmas to take
down the tree and put it away. I replied, “You’ll be asking me in just a
few days to put it back up again.” At least with time passing so swiftly
it seems like such a short time from year to year.
The Bible says in Eph. 5:15, 16, “See then that ye walk
circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because
the days are evil.” Job says in Job 14:1, 2, “Man that is born of
a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a
flower and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.”
James says in 4:14, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the
morrow. For what is your life? It is even as a vapour, that appeareth
for a little time and then vanished away.” Is this not how our lives
are? We come into this world, live a little while and pass from the
scenes of life. We ought to live and treasure every minute of our lives
giving God all the honor and glory for every blessing he has bestowed
upon us.
When God first created man, he lived to be 8 to 9 hundred years old. In
Genesis chapter 6 verse 3, “And the Lord said, “My spirit shall not
always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be
an hundred and twenty years.” In Ps.90:10, 12, “The days of our years
are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four
score years, yet is their strength, labor, and sorrow; for it is soon
cut off, and we fly away. So teach us to number our days, that we may
apply our hearts unto wisdom.” I think the above scripture teaches
us that each day is a special day and we only have but few days. Is.
40:6-8 says, “The voice said, cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All
flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the
Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
Ps. 39:5 says, “Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreath; and
mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state
is altogether vanity". David describes our life as a handbreath
which is a Linear measure varying from 2 ½” to 4." This is a very short
measure. Ps. 144:4 says, “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a
shadow that passeth away.”
Ps. 103: 15-18 says, “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower
of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it and it is
gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the Mercy of the
Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his
righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant,
and to those that remember his commandments to do them.”
