The Gift of Days

James 4:13-16

[13] 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”—[14] yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Luke 12:19-23

[19] And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ [20] But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ [21] So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

[22] And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. [23] For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

Matthew 16:26

[26] For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Psalm 39:6-7

        [6]     Surely a man goes about as a shadow!

    Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;

        man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

    [7] “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?

        My hope is in you.

Things we take for granted during our short time on Earth.

Seconds into minutes.

Minutes into hours.

Hours into days.

Days into months.

Months into years.

Years into eternity.

Sunrise and Sunset.

The wind, the rain.

The rising and falling of ones chest signifying the breath of life.

The thumping of each beat of a heart given life by God alone.

Being able to step, placing a foot, one before the other ending in walking.

To talk, making a choice to be kind or hateful.

To hear words of encouragement or to hear speech that rips into someone leaving them a shattered soul.

Lord, teach us to pay attention to our days.

Psalm 90:9-12

    [9] For all our days pass away under your wrath;

        we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 

    [10] The years of our life are seventy,

        or even by reason of strength eighty;

    yet their span is but toil and trouble;

        they are soon gone, and we fly away. 

    [11] Who considers the power of your anger,

        and your wrath according to the fear of you?

    [12] So teach us to number our days

        that we may get a heart of wisdom.