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A Prayer Acknowledging Just How Short Our Lives Are

     Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15

Dear heavenly Father, you haven’t made us for a mere “fifteen minutes in the spotlight,” but, rather, for an eternity of glorifying you and enjoying you forever. Yet, Father, these verses in James remind me that our lifespan in this body isn’t very longat all. We’re more like a brief mist than an aging oak. I feel this more than ever, and I’m both sobered and gladdened by the thought.

This being so, how would you have me spend the rest of my “misty moment”? Only you know when I’ll “vanish” from this body. Whether you give me two or twenty more years, I’m at peace. There are times when I easily say with Paul, “Better, by far, to depart to be with the Lord” (Phil. 1:23), and then, a part of me longs for more adventures and opportunities to serve you in this world, before the Day.

So, Father, in light of the gospel, what should I spend more time doing and less time doing? What have I been putting off that really matters to you? With whom do I need to spend more face-to-face and heart-to-heart time?

Who am I still holding hostage by the chains of un-forgiveness and resentment? What am I allowing to bug me that isn’t “bug-worthy”? Where should I invest more of my heart and less of my worries? Where do my schedule and priorities, emotions and spending reflect a greater love for my idols than your kingdom?

Father, I praise you that I’m not going to merit any more of your affection by doing a better job with anyof these things. None of these questions has a scorecard attached to it. I trust in Jesus’ righteousness plus nothing, for my relationship and peace with you. But your grace frees me to ask the right questions that I might live a freer, more intentional life. Father, make my “gospel bucket list” for me. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ matchless and magnificent name.

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