When God's Word went to the cross and made full payment for all our sinful, self-serving, self-seeking activities, and then rose from the dead, Jesus added an "always and forever" to our days and life.
When we wake up in the morning, what greets us? More of the daily grind? A new shot at life? Is each morning more miserable than the last or pregnant with new mercies?
God has given us another day. Today, God gives us more of life and all it contains. We sleep and awake to another day held tight in God's grip. Each day, God adds to the number of our days. The number of days we're given, only God knows. For David, he thanks God for his life and the days he's reigned as king:
"Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations...So will I ever sing praises to your name, as I perform my vows day after day," (Psalm 61:6,8)
Whether we're a king or a beggar, the goal of life is the same: God leads us to the refuge that's more secure and safe than any man-made structure. Even if we're stripped of everything -- king and country, time, money and possessions -- even if our enemies surround us, too numerous to count, we will not die but live and confess what the Lord does for us. Only the Lord knows the number of our days.
That's why Jesus teaches us that, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’”(Matthew 4:4).
God speaks us into existence. God's Word creates evening and morning and awakens us each day to a new life. God's Word supplies us with all that we need for our body and life--and life eternal. Each morning that we awake is another day God's Word prolongs our life because he is our life. Jesus and life are synonymous.
Other people do things to shorten or lengthen their lives. They worry about themselves most of the time. They measure the value of their life by how much material wealth they've accumulated. The food they eat, the size of their bed, who they name-drop, how they entertain themselves--all these things are how they weigh the value of their lives. They imagine these things take away or add to the days of their life.
We should concern ourselves about what we put into the body that God has given us. The right amount of sleep is very important for our mental, physical, and emotional health. Who we know matters. Are we surrounded by miserable, unhappy people or grateful, encouraging people? And we all need a break from the daily grind, to sit down and enjoy some light-hearted entertainment. But, if we put the wrong emphasis on these things, we get distracted by them. We forget the goal of life, and that hurts us worse than we imagine.
Like David, we recognize that God adds to our days and prolongs our lives. Yes, that life is cut horribly short by the consequences of our sin, our inherent selfishness. But, when God's Word went to the cross and made full payment for all our sinful, self-serving, self-seeking activities, and then rose from the dead, Jesus added an "always and forever" to our days and life.
Trusting that Jesus’ promises are true, we live, breathe, and have our being in the shelter of his faithful-loving kindness. Each day that God gives us is another day with Jesus. A daily gift, a gift we call "today," given to us by God's Word. That Word stretches into eternity so that there's never a day when we're not living in God's presence, praising and thanking him in the name of Jesus, for all he does and gives to us.
In Christ, there's never a day that life isn't added to our days, so we sing praises to his name, now and forever.
