Handling Grief

Scriptures: Hebrews 4:15, John 11:35, Matthew 14:13

It Is Okay To Grieve

When someone we love dies, we often feel many different emotions. No, it is not wrong to cry or mourn. The reality that God is in control and it will all work out in the long run doesn’t discount the pain we feel here and now.

God understands how terrible and painful dealing with death can be. We get a good example of how God views death from when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus shows us that it is ok to grieve when He wept at the grave of Lazarus. He shows us that it is not sinful to feel sorrow. He shows us that intense feeling is not a thing of which we need be ashamed.

Jesus cried like we cry. He shed tears like we shed tears. He was moved like we are moved. Jesus wept, which showed he had a heart. This shows us that we do not serve a God who is unmoved by what happens to us. So don’t be afraid to take your concerns to God.  

Hebrews 4:15 tells us “We don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” Jesus is moved in our afflictions. 

Jesus also mourned when his dear friend and cousin, John the Baptist was put to death.

His reactions to both these deaths was different. And we can learn from His experience on how to grieve.

In Matthew 14:13, we find that when Jesus heard the news about John the Baptist’s death, he got on a boat and went to a desolate place. Jesus was grieving. He was heartbroken to hear what happened to John. And Jesus wanted to just spend some time alone, praying and thinking. 

There would be many a time when you would just want to be alone in your grief, thinking through issues and spending time with God and asking Him many questions. This is perfectly okay.

But we read that the crowd when they hear where Jesus was going, travelled by foot and met Jesus on the other side.

Have you ever felt like that? All you want to do is get away and be by yourself and grieve, but the demands of life don’t allow it? 

How did Jesus respond to this situation? The Bible says that when He saw the crowd he had compassion on them and immediately got to work healing their sick. Although Jesus grieved the loss of his dear friend, his grief empowered him for ministry. In the midst of his emotional pain, Jesus turned outward instead of inward. Rather than turning in on himself and thinking “woe is me”, he turns outward to serve and to love the crowds.

We must be very careful that in our mourning we don’t turn our sorrow into self-pity and loathing. Our sorrow empowers us to love and serve others. All that hurt, all those emotions you feel, take them and use them to show compassion on people who desperately need the love of Jesus.

This is often the key to move on in life in the midst of grief. The more we spend time looking inward, we will be stuck in the past. When we begin to look outward and serve others, we move to the future.

Quote: Only when we put away our high-and-dry pictures of who God is and replace them with pictures in which the Word who is God can cry with the world’s crying will we discover what the word ‘God’ really means. -Tom Wright

Prayer: Lord, I thank you that you understand my sorrow. I come to you for help and strength in my grief. Amen

Scripture: John 11:1-21

It Is Okay To Have Questions

You may also have several questions about death and dying. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable, sad, or angry when someone dies, and it’s okay to ask questions.

Martha and Mary are grieving. Their brother Lazarus was dead and they had buried him four days ago. They had sent a message to Jesus to tell him of his illness. They had hoped that He would have rushed to their assistance. Surely he could have done something. But days passed and Jesus had not come and now Lazarus was dead and buried. And they and their friends were mourning. 

So when Jesus came to visit them after Lazarus died, Martha says to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

Martha expresses anger about her brother’s death. Many people are like Martha—they become angry when someone close to them dies. And it’s interesting that Jesus is not frustrated with Martha for being angry. Jesus understands that it is natural for us to feel angry when someone we love dies. God understands how we feel.

Have you had any ‘if’ questions or ‘why’ questions for God like “Lord, if you had been here, my mother would not have gotten so sick. The accident would not have occurred if… Why did my loved one die? Why did my husband die? Why my wife? Why did tragedy strike us? If I had admitted my husband earlier to the hospital would it have saved him? If I had taken better care for her, would she still be alive? Why did God not answer my prayers? Where was God in all of this? Why didn’t God show up?”

Ask the why questions. Even if they are things you know intellectually make no sense. Even if you get medical reasons or other information that explains the death, the answers will still not be satisfactory.

Mary reacted differently from Martha. Mary cries and weeps a lot. She may have been angry, too, but Mary is mostly sad. The Bible says that Mary came to Jesus, fell at his feet, and wept uncontrollably. She did not hold back her tears. And notice that Jesus didn’t tell her to stop crying. Jesus understands our sadness. It is natural and normal for us to be sad when someone we love dies.

Death can cause us to feel many different emotions. People react differently to death. Through his reactions to his grieving friends, Jesus says, “That’s okay. Everyone responds differently.” Jesus does not condemn Martha’s anger or Mary’s sadness. What Jesus wants us to know is that he is always with us, comforting and assuring us whenever we are grieving.

So, go ahead. Spend time alone asking God your questions. He understands. When you realize you’re never going to find a satisfying “why,” allow your “why” to shift to how. How am I going to move forward after this loss?

You will be surprised to know that you are not alone in your doubts and that you’re set free to express your true feelings to God. You will be comforted to know that Jesus’ heart is breaking with yours. And when you discover how to experience His most intimate care, you will know why your suffering means that your greatest impact and influence for God is in front of you. 

Quote: Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time. – Oswald Chambers

Prayer: Lord I thank you that you are not frustrated when I pour out my questions to you. Help me to find rest in you, knowing that even though I may not get all the answers, you are stlll in control. Amen 

Scripture: John 11:1-21

“Where Was God In All Of This?”

In our darkest moments, we can live our lives filled with resentment stomping the ground and shaking our fists at God in a heated rage asking, “Where was God in all of this?” Or, we can put our faith in the lordship of Jesus over life and death. 

The reason why we get agitated when God does not respond according to our wishes is that we want God to perform on cue; we want him to do whatever we ask; we want to boss him around. We may not say it in so many words, but this is another way of saying, we want to be God instead of letting God be God. That is why we keep complaining when God doesn’t do what we ask.

All of us want miracles in our lives. Miracles are nice; but they don’t solve our deepest problem. Yes, we would rather have a nice life than a miserable one; we would rather live a normal life than a tumultuous one. But in the end, none of us will have as much control as we would like. We will suffer losses; we will face death of our loved ones, our children will experience pain and disappointment; our lives will not go as planned. Life will not turn out as we had imagined, expected, and hoped for.

“One of the things you find in people who haven’t suffered much is that they tend to believe in propriety,” wrote Dallas Willard. He’s right. We need to set aside preconceptions about what and how we expected our loved one’s death — and our grief — to look like.

But the beauty of it all is that Jesus Christ offers something more and better than miracles of health and healing in this world. We don’t have to witness a bringing back to life, as did Mary and Martha. We have the assurance that God is with us. We can put our trust in the words of Jesus who said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

Remember that God is not just crying with us. He brings resurrection and life out of death. 

In the incident of Jesus and Lazarus, Jesus is the real miracle of the story; he is the final and ultimate answer to prayer. He is the resurrection and the life. Not resuscitation but resurrection. Not reversal but renewal. Jesus defeated sin and death and hell. 

If we believe in him—John’s point throughout the story—then we will have life, real, permanent, abundant, substantial, eternal life. If we die, we will still experience that life. But even now we can experience that life because it is bigger than both the life that we know and the death that we dread. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” 

Then Jesus adds, “Do you believe this?” This is the question we need to ask ourselves when we have the question “Where was God in all of this?”

The answer to this question is that He was and is very much with us, offering us His resurrection life. Will you take up His offer and experience new life in the midst of grief?

Quote: “When pain and suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were.” – Timothy Keller

Prayer: Lord I thank you for helping me to understand that during the times when I questioned your presence, You were very much near. Help me to see and believe this. Amen

Scriptures: John 11:4-15, John 14:2-4, John 17:24

Hope In The Midst Of Grief

God can still interject a BUT!

When Jesus received word that Lazarus was sick. Jesus’ response to the news was “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”  

After two days He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

He waited to go “so that they might believe.” The delays of God always have a purpose. There are greater depths of faith that He wants to take us. He had already shown them that He could heal; now He was teaching them that He had power over even death. This would only be possible if He delayed.  

Is it possible that in God’s timing, in God’s seeming absence, that He wants to teach you something greater, something more meaningful, something that you don’t already know? 

Can you humble yourself enough to accept this? Can you believe that if God is big enough to create everything, then He is big enough to have a reason for allowing your suffering that you cannot understand? Can that help you to trust, knowing that God is perfect in His love, justice, and sovereignty, sees the end from the beginning, and knows what He is doing, even when you can’t comprehend it?

Have you prayed for your loved one’s healing and yet your beloved one died?

You may think that it is all over. BUT God still says, “My name will be glorified through it.” Do you believe it?

In John 17:24, we read words that, on close and prayerful reflection, should be very near to our hearts when a loved one dies. Carefully consider the desire of Jesus: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

He desires that His people be with Him. Jesus is completely happy and satisfied as He reigns from heaven, but according to His prayer in John 17, He still has a certain unfulfilled desire: that His people join Him in the home He has already prepared for them (John 14:2–4).

When a loved one who knows the Lord dies, we should remember first and foremost that the Father has answered Jesus’s prayer. God is sovereign over our loved ones’ deaths, and He has purposes we may never understand, but we can cling to the truth that Jesus has prayed to His Father to bring His people home. When a Christian dies, the Father is granting the answer to His Son’s request. 

We can at least say this much: When a loved one dies, Jesus gains a lot more than we have lost.

Yes, we have lost. We will never again share sweet fellowship with that loved one. The magnitude of the loss often eludes our words. But the loss is never beyond Jesus’ words: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.”

We may shed enough tears to fill buckets, but those streams of tears running down our cheeks will glisten with joy when we realize that our loved one’s death is nothing less than an answer to Jesus’s prayer.

Here we see hope. 

Quote: Christians never say “good bye”; just “until we meet again” – Woodrow Kroll

Prayer: Lord I thank you that in the midst of grief that we can have hope that soon we will meet our loved ones again. Amen

Scriptures: Hebrews 9:27, Hebrews 2:14-15

Death Is A Part Of Life

Death is almost always a topic we shy away from. Many are not comfortable with it. Some even fear it. But death is a part of life. 

It was George Barnard Shaw who said that the statistics on death are very staggering – “one of every one person dies.” Death is the only certain thing in this life.

God never promised us that we or our loved ones wouldn’t die. In fact, He promised exactly the opposite–everyone dies. Hebrews 9:27 tells us “And it was appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment.”

Everyone dies. God has not broken any promises when He lets people die. He has simply allowed what He said would happen, to happen. Ever since Adam and Eve brought death and decay into our world, death has been part of the bargain. So, we need to be prepared for death.

In John 11:11, we see how tenderly Christ speaks of the death of believers. He announces the fact of Lazarus being dead in a language of singular beauty and gentleness—“Our friend Lazarus sleeps.”

Psychologists tell us that Thanatophobia, the fear of death, is the root of all the other fears. If you have a spirit of fear, you did not get it from God. You get rid of fear in your life by replacing it with faith. When faith comes, fear goes! Fear leaves when faith comes!

Jesus has already taken the sting out of death for those who have received Him as their Savior (1 Cor. 15:55-57).  Through Jesus’ victory over death, He delivers “them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15). For the child of God trusting the Lord, death holds no terror, but rather affords a glorious anticipation of release from the limitations of this earthly life into the liberation of the heavenly life. As Paul said, “To die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

When cancer took the wife of Donald Barnhouse, leaving him with three children all under 12, he thought of how to bring a message of hope to his children. When they were driving to the funeral service, a large truck passed them, casting a noticeable shadow across their car. Turning to his oldest daughter, who was staring sadly out the window, Barnhouse asked, “Tell me, sweetheart, would you rather be run over by that truck or its shadow?” Looking curiously at her father, she replied, “By the shadow, I guess. It can’t hurt you.” Speaking to all his children, he said, “Your mother has not been overridden by death, but by the shadow of death. That is nothing to fear.”

The countdown to death begins at birth. The Bible is not afraid to speak of death: it calls it what it is. But at the very centre of Christianity is the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The cross is where Jesus enters into the grief and suffering of the world; he experiences the abandonment and depth of death. In the resurrection, Jesus breaks the power of death; it is no longer a full stop lingering over humanity; it is redefined in Him and He offers us life eternal. 

If our theology is only that of the cross, we miss the hope and the joy of the Gospel. 

If our theology is only of resurrection then we can’t understand suffering or make any sense of it, let alone be comfortable to sit with it. 

We need both – the cross and the resurrection.

Quote: Where sin has been removed death can only interrupt the earthly life and usher in the heavenly.-John MacArthur

Prayer: Lord, I thank you that death is not the end, but the beginning of life. Amen

Scripture: Matthew 10:29-31

God Is Still On The Throne

When death comes in an unexpected way, for example in a sudden accident, or in cases where a young child suddenly dies, there is always a sense that this was not meant to be. We are left reeling at the ambush of fate. This sensation of being caught off guard can sometimes lead us to feel as if God was also surprised, since He didn’t provide us with enough warning or preparation time, as when we are diagnosed with a terminal illness and supplied with a prognosis of time.

But the Bible assures us that God is absolutely sovereign over life and death. He is never caught off guard, He is never surprised at events. No, God ordains everything to the minutest detail. This is the truth that brings peace and rest to a heart that is staggering under the dizzying sucker-punch of sudden loss.

Matthew 10:29-31 says “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

This is a precious and profound reality that needs to be impressed on the grieving heart.

J.C.Ryle writes “Happy is that man who can walk in our Lord’s steps, and say, “I shall have what is good for me. I shall live on earth till my work is done, and not a moment longer. I shall be taken when I am ripe for heaven, and not a minute before. All the powers of the world cannot take away my life, till God permits. All the physicians on earth cannot preserve it, when God calls me away.”

In the case of Lazarus, the Bible says “When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 

There is a difference between God saying yes to your prayer for your specific need and saying yes to your prayer to show you His glory. We can be assured that our belief in Jesus’ promise means we will someday understand how God used our pain to glorify Himself. 

Life won’t quit hurting, but neither will Jesus quit caring. If you will trust Him, He will show you His glory.

Remember that death is not the end. Also remember that there could be meaning in this tragedy. That the death would not be meaningless.

The tragedy of atheistic belief is that everything is ultimately objectively meaningless. Death becomes the ultimate tragedy, because it is the final end of life. But our hearts protest against that. We want, we need for there to be meaning, even in tragedy. And in the gospel, there is.

Romans 8:28 gives us the assurance that “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

May the Lord use this devotional to convince you that God is still on the throne and that some of your very best days are still ahead, days filled with meaning and significance, as you allow Him to use your hurt to help and encourage others. And that is a glory worth living for.

Quote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C.S.Lewis

Prayer: Lord I thank you that you are still on the throne and even through the loss of my loved one, you will glorify Your name and make something beautiful of my life. Amen 

Scriptures: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, 2 Samuel 12:20-23

We Will Soon Be Reunited

In one of the greatest paradoxes on earth, joy and sorrow aren’t opposites. In fact, grief is the road that leads to renewed hope — if we let it.

The sooner we let ourselves feel our sorrow, talk about it, and process it, the greater our likelihood of emerging from the shadows with our integrity intact and our faith more resilient. 

In our darkest moments, we can live our life filled with resentment, stomping the ground and shaking our fists at God in a heated rage. Or, we can put our faith in the Lord’s control over life and death. We have the assurance that God is with us. We can put our trust in the words of Jesus who said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

The raising of Lazarus tells the final miracle of seven “miracle stories” in the Gospel of John. He calls them “signs.” Signs point beyond themselves to some other and greater reality. 

Martha and Mary wanted a miracle, and they got their miracle. Their request was granted, their prayer answered. But John tells us it is a sign. And signs point beyond themselves to something else, something more important and real.

We often want a reversal or resuscitation; Christ promises a resurrection. Jesus resuscitates Lazarus, the last and best sign; but Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Jesus offers something more and better. Not a nice life but a new one. He is the real miracle of the story; he is the final and ultimate answer to prayer. He is the resurrection and the life. Not resuscitation but resurrection. Not reversal but renewal. Jesus defeated sin and death and hell. 

If we believe in him, then we will have life, real, permanent, abundant, substantial, eternal life. If we die, we will still experience that life. But even now we can experience that life because it is bigger than both the life that we know and the death that we dread. 

This is a joy that can only be appreciated by Christians who have lost loved ones who are in Christ. One of the sweet joys of Heaven is not only seeing our Savior face to face, but also being reunited with our brothers and sisters in Christ who have crossed Jordan ahead of us.

1 Thess 4:13-14 says “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

We see King David comforted by this truth when his infant son died. He confidently asserted that “He cannot come back to me but I shall go to him” (2 Samuel 12:20-23).

This is the silver lining we must draw our attention to when we are overshadowed by the storm clouds of loss.

Instead of seeing our loved ones as being “dead in the past” – start seeing them as being “fully alive in heaven” – and understand that we will be reunited with them once again in a very short period of time.

Our time on this earth is not even a blink of an eye compared to the eternal time frame that is operating in heaven.

Quote: As I go into a cemetery I like to think of the time when the dead shall rise from their graves. … Thank God, our friends are not buried; they are only sown! – D.L.Moody

Prayer: Lord, I thank you for the assurance that we will be united with our loved ones soon. Amen

Scripture: John 11:25

Moving From IF To I Believe

When both Martha and Mary first met Jesus at the grave they both said to Jesus “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus wanted to take them from an IF faith to I believe.

When Jesus calmly and lovingly told her, “Your brother will rise again,” she sarcastically replied, “Yes, Yes, I know that!” But with every beat of her heart, she was really saying, “I wanted you here to prevent this horrible thing from ever happening.”

Meanwhile, Jesus continued saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die will live.” Then Jesus asks her a very pointed question, “Martha, do you believe this?” To which Martha responded, “Yes, Lord I believe.”

The Bible is clear that after death, two literal destinies await all humanity: eternal life and eternal death (Rom. 6:23). Those who place their faith in Jesus Christ receive everlasting life. When a believer dies, their body remains in the grave, but their soul is consciously and immediately taken into the presence of Jesus. Our soul’s immediate destiny is heaven, since Jesus himself ascended into heaven (Acts 1:11) and is presently there preparing a home for us.

When we die, we are consciously and immediately taken into the presence of our Savior in heaven.

Our loved ones who have died have gone before us into heaven. They are no longer in the past- they are in the future.

We must change the “angle” from which we look at the death of our loved ones. Instead of seeing them as being “dead in the past” – we must start seeing them as being “fully alive in heaven” and understand that we will be reunited with them once again in a very short period of time.

Jesus talked a lot about heaven. He didn’t teach about heaven as a theologically abstract place. He described it as His home—a reality. His Father is in this place (Luke 10:21), where everything is just the way He wants it (Matt. 6:10). He encouraged His followers to invest there (vv. 19–21). He came from there (John 3:13) and longed to return. And He promised to take His followers there to live with Him (14:1–3).

The question that Jesus asked Martha brings her to the decision that divides humanity: “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26).

This is the profoundly simple transaction that brings the hope of heaven to hurting hearts. It contains two parts—one is our responsibility, the other is His promise. If you believe this, He will be your resurrection and your life.

Martha’s reply confirms her belief in Jesus.

“Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into the world.” (John 11:27)

The most important day in Martha’s life was not the day Jesus relieved her urgent pain by raising Lazarus from the dead, but the day she stood before the Lord Jesus and believed in Him. It was the day she received the life she, her sister, and her brother have been enjoying in heaven with Jesus every day for nearly two thousand years.

This day can also be the most important day of your life, as you believe in Jesus as your Savor and Lord and know that one day soon you will meet the Lord and spend eternity with Him and all our loved ones who have believed in Him and have gone on ahead before us.

Quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to what our reason has once accepted, in spite of our changing moods.” C.S.Lewis

Prayer: Lord I pray that You will turn my sorrow into gladness, as I believe in who You are and put my trust in You. Amen

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Two Examples Of Grief

David and his wife Svea Flood, a young couple with a 2-year-old son went as missionaries to the Congo in 1921.

In a very short while his wife Svea contracted malaria. In the midst of this, she found herself pregnant and for several months endured a raging fever.

Eventually, Svea’s malaria got so bad she became bedridden and within a week after delivering a healthy baby girl she died.

David Flood was badly shaken by his wife’s death. As he stood beside her grave, with his young son beside him, he heard his baby daughter’s cries from the mud hut. And suddenly, bitterness filled his heart. An anger rose up in him – and he couldn’t control it. He flew into a rage, crying, “Why did you allow this, God? We came here to give our lives! My wife was so beautiful, so talented. And here she lies, dead at twenty-seven.”

“Now I have a two-year-old son I can hardly care for, let alone a baby girl. You’ve failed me, God. What a waste of life!”

He gave his newborn daughter to another missionary to take care of and snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself.

It was many, many years later that his daughter found him in a rundown building with liquor bottles lying around him. He was now seventy-three years old and suffering from diabetes. He’d also had a stroke, and cataracts covered both of his eyes.

Praise God that this meeting with his daughter brought him to repentance and he turned back to the Lord before he died. But his whole life was wasted.

Lettie Cowman and her husband Charles went to Japan as missionaries in the 1900s.

After sixteen years of daily meetings, overseeing a Bible institute, and an organization and preaching tours in Korea and China, Charles’ health failed. So Charles and Lettie returned to the United States.

In California, Charles had a heart attack, then his condition worsened further. Lettie nursed her beloved Charles for the next six years. But after a long battle Charles succumbed in September of 1924. 

Charles’ death was devastating for Lettie. Since they were childless, Charles meant everything to her. They had had a “marriage made in heaven” and were completely devoted to each other. She wrote in her diary, “This is a living hell on earth!” Lettie had prayed that God would heal Charles. Why didn’t He? Had not hundreds of people lifted up Charles to God for healing? Where was He?”

Lettie turned to God’s Word for her help. God seemed to be asking her if she wanted her husband to be healed more than she wanted His will for her. Lettie spent hours reading the Bible and books on suffering and encouragement. She copied out many truths from these books. Little did she know that she was doing this work for others and not just for herself, because out of Mrs. Cowman’s experiences and heartbreak and from the hundreds of words of wisdom that she gleaned from the books she read, Streams in the Desert was born. And for over 90 years now Streams in the Desert has never been out of print and has sold over six million copies in multiple languages.

You can allow God to use your grief to touch lives or you can waste your life. The choice is yours 

Quote: ”Remember, you have one life. That’s all. You were made for God. Don’t waste it.”- John Piper

Prayer: Lord, help me never to give up on You or on life because of the loss of a loved one. Help me not to waste my life but allow You to allow my grief for Your glory. Amen 

Scriptures: Psalms 90:12, Job 14:1-6

The Brevity Of Life

The loss of a loved one often brings to our realization the reality of the brevity of life. 

Life is fragile and fleeting. For some, this journey will last only a few years. For others, it will last many decades. But for all, it will some day come to a close.

Aware of death’s inevitability, we must discipline ourselves to ponder just how short our lives will be.

But sometimes it takes a lifetime or the loss of a life to learn our limits. This is why Moses, in Psalm 90:12, asks us to pray “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” 

We count what we value: money, sports scores, calories, etc. So if we value our days, we should be counting them, as well. Just as someone who overestimates their financial capital can be fiscally irresponsible, someone who overestimates their lifespan can be finitely irresponsible. There is immense wisdom in treating tomorrow as a gift rather than taking it for granted.

The brevity of life is a stubborn and undeniable fact. We may think about the uncertainty of life – the fact that any of us may die today or tomorrow – but life is not just uncertain, it is also very brief.

Job says, ‘Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure … Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired man’ (Job 14:1-6). 

Or, in the words of Moses, in Psalm 90:10 ‘The length of our days is seventy years – or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away’ 

A person who thinks he is an adult, but lives as if he will never die is a fool – at least, that is what God called one of his kind in the Scriptures (Luke 12:20).

The realization that life is brief should have a very sobering effect on you. It should lead to make the best use of time. 

Meaning and fulfilment for your brief earthly life can only be found as you seek to obey, love and serve God.

Paul wrote, ‘I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace’ (Acts 20:24).

In this way, when your brief earthly life comes to an end, you are not sad or unhappy with God but you feel privileged that your life counted towards the building of God’s eternal kingdom. And with confidence, you can say with Paul, ‘The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day’ (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Yes, life is brief, and so are the opportunities to make eternal investments. So, make your life count for Jesus.

Quote: “The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.” John Piper

Prayer: Lord, knowing that my life is short, help me to make the best use of it, so that when my time comes to meet You, I will be ready. Amen