The Time We Have – EP97 (Psalms 90:12)
Psalms 90:12
Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom
Hello and welcome back to the One Thing podcast. I was speaking to a group of youth group kids yesterday, and we were talking about Psalms chapter 90 verse 12. One of my favorite parts of that psalm - this is a psalm of Moses and he says, “Teach us to number our days, that we [would] gain a heart of wisdom.”
"‘Teach us to realize that we are not going to be on this earth forever.’"“Teach us to number our days…” in other words, ‘Teach us to realize that we are not going to be on this earth forever.’ There comes a time, and the time can be sooner than later, where we will pass from this place, and to stand before God to a time of judgment - to a time of whether we're gonna enter into His glory, or to everlasting punishment. That's what the Scripture says. But, what great hope the Lord has given us: We can gain a heart of wisdom. It is wise to recognize that we only have so many days on this earth. And we can ask ourself what are we ever to do?
Now as I spoke to the kids, discussing about how many hours people may spend a day - what is the average amount of time that the American may spend watching TV, whether it be streaming or whatever - we get into a day and the average was three hours a day. Three hours - most people spend three and probably more, passively watching their favorite episodes their seasons whatever it may be. It's really where a lot of people's time seems to go.
So we moved on further and we asked the question about a statistic of how many hours a day did they think that a person spends on social media whether it be an app on the phone or on the computer whatever it may be but just some sort of social media. And the average was about two and a half hours a day. So think about this: People spend typically five hours - five hours doing something passive something that may not mean much but just really more of an entertainment. So we sorta laughed a little bit to think, wow that's a lot of time sometimes we waste. Not that it's terribly bad we watch television or anything but we were just thinking, wow, we could probably watch a lot less and do more with our time.
So we're looking at how much time we waste and then, the next question was, when we put popcorn in the microwave or when we go to heat something up, even though it may be two or three minutes, how often do we really patiently wait? And we started to laugh again and we're thinking, in those three minutes for the popcorn to be popped we're just thinkin’, ‘Man this is taking forever.’ And even when we go to fast food restaurants or maybe waiting in the doctor's offices, we don't like to waste time there we want things to kinda hurry up - we wanna hurry up and get in and get out or get our food cooked.
"We come into the wisdom of God."So, here goes the dilemma: We seem to be a people really good at wasting time, but then at the same time, we’re a people who like to hurry things up. We want things quick we want our food quick. And so, in this great dilemma of a people who waste time - but at the same time hate wasting time - what do we do?
"...may we be those, balanced out with the power of God - doing His work and His will, and enjoying what He's given."We come into the wisdom of God. We come before God, as this Psalm says, ‘Father teach us to number our days. Teach us to see that there is an opportunity every moment of the day to grow closer to You. Teach us Lord, even though we may watch some television or do those different things, but let us not waste away in being so intense on entertainments - so intense on spending our time just kinda going by as though the time will not come to an end. Teach us Lord, to seek You with all of our heart. Teach us not to waste away. Teach us to be those who one day will stand before You God - not in judgment, as though we wasted our lives away, but as those who have taken what God has given every day. To come into Your will, and to seek what You would want for our lives that Your Name would be exalted.’ That we would be those coming into the wisdom of God who says, ‘Be wise with every opportunity.’
Do not waste your opportunities this day to seek the Father. We would just be saying, ‘Father keep me close. Keep me close that I would have a heart and desire for You, that You would be exalted in my life.’ May we seek the Lord. May we be those not wasting time, but also not in such a hurry. But may we be those, balanced out with the power of God - doing His work and His will, and enjoying what He's given. Praying you have a blessed day, and a blessed time. Amen, amen.