How many days do you have left? That's a very sobering, somewhat unsettling question, isn't it? We don't like to think about the fact that our days here on this earth are numbered. Oh, we all know the number behind us–how many days we've lived already. But thinking about how many are left–well, that's not something we think about too often. In fact, most of us live as though our days are without number.

 

In Psalm 39 David wrote:

 

 

And in Psalm 90 Moses prayed:

 

 

These men of God were not asking for a gift of prophecy, but rather for a change in perspective. They understood that living in the knowledge of how fleeting life is becomes a life-changing attitude, and they recognized that this attitude doesn't come naturally to anyone. So they prayed for the ability to number their days.

 

I would suggest that all of us need to pray this prayer daily: "Lord, teach me to number my days correctly." You see, how you number your days has everything to do with how you live your life! Let me try to illustrate this for you.

 

Let's say that you learn that a coworker has been given a promotion that you deserve. That is hurtful and your natural reaction is anger, retribution, self-defense. But suppose you knew you only had five more days here on this earth. Would that loss of promotion have much, if any, effect on you? No, I doubt it, because since your days are few, a lost promotion isn't really important, is it? 

 

That's what David meant when he prayed "let me know how fleeting is my life." You see, this is an attitude that has to come from God because it is not a natural, human tendency to number our days aright. Moses prayed "Teach me to number my days aright," and we need to sign up for that course as well. It is an attitude that has to be learned and imposed into our lives, but when we learn this lesson, we gain a heart of wisdom.

All of us tend to live as though these days here on earth are numberless, don't we? We just don't naturally think about the fact that our days on earth will not go on forever. But as David wrote in Psalm 39: 

 

 

And again in Psalm 103:15-16: 

 

 

David is not telling us that our lives have no meaning, but rather he is reminding us that whether we have five days, five years, or fifty-five years remaining in these numbered days, they are very few compared to the numberless days ahead of us. And as we saw yesterday, both he and Moses asked God to teach them to number their days; to help them live in the knowledge that life is short.

 

Let me illustrate how life-changing it is to number your days aright. Suppose you find out today what someone said about you, and it is untrue, unfair and unkind. Your feelings are hurt. You want to say something bad about him or her in return. But if you stop and number your days, it changes your reaction. You’re not as likely to want retribution, your anger dissipates, your stress goes down. When you remember to number your days, you realized that someone's hurtful words cannot affect your numberless days yet to come.

 

From time to time we all get criticisms that are not constructive. If you're like me, you want to defend yourself immediately. But God is teaching me to number my days when I'm criticized unfairly and say to myself: "What difference does it make, Mary? Life is short; you have other eternally important things to do." 

 

When you number your days correctly, it makes you wise rather than foolish, it reduces your stress, it saves your energy, it causes you to react correctly, it gives you the upper hand in any situation. 

I've been trying to enroll you in a very important math course that will change your life. It's "new math" for most of us, because not many of us know how to do it. It's called "Numbering Your Days." 

 

In Psalm 90 Moses prayed "Teach us to number our days aright. . ." I want to remind you of some theology that will help you learn this new math of numbering your days. It's called the Judgment Seat of Christ. This is a judgment for believers, not unbelievers.  

 

While it's true that our works and effort do not gain us entrance into heaven, it is also true that we will be held accountable to God for how we've used the days and resources that have been entrusted to us. We will stand individually before Christ at this Judgment Seat and what we have done that has no eternal significance or benefit will be burned up. In 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 the Apostle Paul writes:

 

 

What we have done that has eternal significance will come out like gold and diamonds and precious stones which cannot be harmed by fire. But we will suffer loss at that Judgment Seat if we've lived strictly for the here and now and never learned to number our days. I'm sure, like me, you don't want to stand there with nothing to show for the numbered days you lived on earth.

 

Pray daily that God will teach you how to live in the awareness that your days are numbered and to help you live each day so that you have something of value to show for it at the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

If I told you about a course you could take which would revolutionize your life and make it much better, would you be interested? Quite frankly, that's what I'm trying to do as I look at "Numbering Your Days." As the Psalmist prayed, we have to learn to number our days aright; how to live with a completely new attitude; how to live now in the light of eternity. 

 

This course is one that you must teach yourself, with the help of the Holy Spirit. In other words, you have to determine to embrace a new attitude toward every aspect of your life. 

 

In learning to maintain a positive attitude, I've suggested that you say to yourself "What difference will this make in 24 hours?" I've discovered that really helps me keep from getting upset over little things that don't really matter.

 

Well, let me suggest that you learn to ask yourself this question: "What difference will this make at the Judgment Seat of Christ?" Or in other words, “What difference will this make in eternity?”

 

If we practiced this regularly, it would have a great impact on how we spend our time. If what we're doing with our time today is not going to count at the Judgment Seat, do we really want to spend time doing it? It would have a great impact on how we spend our money. If we're spending money foolishly and failing to send it on ahead to heaven, it's not going to count for eternity. Focusing on the reality of the Judgment Seat of Christ will teach us to number our days.

 

If this sounds as though it would be life with restrictions, you're right. Numbering your days rightly will cause you and me to put boundaries in our lives. As Paul wrote, 'Everything is permissible for me—but not everything is beneficial (1 Corinthians 6:12). We each need to set boundaries for ourselves that will help us to number our days.

I was never particularly good at math, were you? But there's a new math that I truly want to learn. It is the Bible math of learning to number my days rightly.

 

Numbering our days rightly means that we learn to see everything that happens in light of its meaning in eternity, where we will have numberless days. Whether we have five days left to live, or five thousand or more, they are fleeting and brief and very short compared to numberless days. Yet what we do with our few numbered days will have a great impact on our numberless days. Look closely at this passage from 2 Peter 3:

 

 

Numbering our days rightly produces holy and godly lives, and that kind of life is good for the Judgment Seat because it will not go up in smoke but will produce jewels and gold. But not only is it good for numberless days, living a godly life is the best thing for us while we're still in these numbered days.

 

Living "holy and godly" just means you are living in harmony with God's plan for your life and that's where we find meaning and joy and peace and contentment and freedom from fear and guilt. This new Bible math called numbering your days is the key to fulfillment here on earth as well as a beautiful experience when you stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

 

Want to learn this new math? Start praying that God will teach you. Remember to say to yourself many times each day: "What difference will this make in eternity?" That's how you number your days rightly. 

 

I wonder if you're like me. I hate discipline, but I love its fruits! Putting discipline into my life is no fun. I'd much rather do what I feel like doing, when I feel like doing it. But I've lived enough years to know that the fruits of discipline are very delicious. How are you doing in the discipline department? 

 

The topic of discipline is one of those non-emotional topics which doesn't bring tears to anyone's eyes or generate a great deal of response. Ughh–who wants to hear about discipline. But to ignore the need for discipline in our lives is to invite disaster. Proverbs says fools despise wisdom and discipline, and he who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame. It also tells us that a person who ignores discipline despises himself, and that a person can die from lack of discipline!

 

But we are told in Proverbs 6:23 that the corrections of discipline are the way to life.” The Book of Proverbs is an excellent book to guide us in the necessary disciplines for a fruitful life. In the first chapter, verse 2, we see that the whole book of Proverbs was written for "acquiring a disciplined and prudent life." 

 

Well, how about you? Does discipline come easy or hard for you? Maybe it's easy in some places and hard in others. That's what I find in my life. I've got some disciplines going really well, but other disciplines go lacking. Lately I've really been working with the Lord to install some needed disciplines in small areas. But they're not really small to God, because in those small areas where I was refusing to be disciplined, I have come to recognize that it was in fact rebellion against God. Rebellion against His control in those areas.

 

I find myself rationalizing: "Well, I'm really a very disciplined person in the important areas; these are just little nits that don't amount to anything." Or the rationalization which says, "Look, you're so disciplined in most areas of your life, you deserve some time off for good behavior.  You've earned your right to be undisciplined here in these little things." 

 

But that lack of discipline is not just a little shortcoming on my part; lack of discipline is sin. James tells us that, Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. So, let's call lack of discipline what it is, even in those small areas: SIN. That way we get God's view of the situation, and we're more likely to get serious about disciplining ourselves. 

 

Let's look at some typical areas where discipline is lacking for many of us. First, there's procrastination; putting off to a later time what we could and should do right now. Funny how we can find all the energy we need to do things we like to do, but we're just too exhausted or too busy to get to those more unpleasant things, so we procrastinate.

 

Here's a motto that we should all adopt: Do it right and do it now! That's a totally biblical principle. We're told to do what our hand finds to do with our whole heart, and Jesus warned His disciples that they must work the works of God now, as long as it is still day. For night is coming when no man can work.

 

Do it right and do it now!  I think that's a discipline sadly lacking in many people, and many are dying for lack of that discipline. Their talents are wasting, their goals are unfulfilled, their plans and programs never get off the ground because they keep procrastinating.

 

Where have you been procrastinating lately? Why don't you do it right and do it now, and get it off your mind? You'd be surprised how much those procrastinations are rattling around in your brain, gumming up the works, slowing down the thinking processes, keeping you from being optimally effective. 

 

Clear the mind; do those things you know you should do. Whether they're little ones or giant ones, they begin with the first step. If you're like me, I'm okay once I make the first step. But oh my, it's so difficult to make that first step sometimes.  

 

Another area where I see a good bit of indiscipline in many people is that of being faithful—doing what you said you'd do. If you're a person who glibly offers to help, or promises to do something, but you have a tendency to let those things slide, forget about them, or change your mind later, you're developing a reputation for being unfaithful, untrustworthy, undependable. Whether it's in business or your own personal life, that's a very bad reputation to have. And it's not just a little quirk in your personality; it's sin. 

 

Paul told the Corinthians that, Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. This is not an option for us Christians; we should be faithful, dependable people; it's a requirement. Aren't you glad God is faithful to you? Aren't you glad you don't have to worry if He's going to be faithful today like He was yesterday? Great is the faithfulness of our God, and that should be a characteristic of those who are His children.

 

It may be something as small as returning a phone call or getting to work on time or putting something in the mail as you promised, but we need to be faithful in everything. And the little things are equally as important as the big ones. We are to acknowledge God in all our ways, even the most minute ones.

 

In fact, I've discovered that people who are not faithful in little areas are usually not faithful in big ones, either. You set a pattern with those little things that follow through to the others. Start working on being faithful in the little things, and see how that carries through to the more significant ones. Those little things are not insignificant to God. Failing to discipline yourself to be faithful is deadly. It could ruin a career, destroy a friendship, or damage your good name.

 

Many of us lack discipline in our eating habits and how we care for our bodies. This is no small matter with God. Your body houses the blessed Holy Spirit, if you're born from above, and that house should be as fit as possible. Yet, how few of us really treat our bodies as carefully as we should so that we provide a house for the Holy Spirit which works at optimum.

 

This is one area of discipline that comes hard for me, but by God's grace, we're getting there. The motivating factor which works for me is to recognize that if I don't eat properly and exercise regularly, I'm going to have a body that functions below its capacity, and that will severely limit my ability to be effective for God. 

 

Remember, we're going to be held accountable for all the resources which God has given to us. I've been given a good healthy body and a good mind, but if I fail to maintain that body so that it runs on all cylinders, God is going to hold me accountable for my use of that resource.

 

I try to keep remembering that I don't belong to myself; I've been bought by Christ and I belong to Him. This body is not mine to do with as I please; I am a bondservant, and this body belongs to my Master. 

 

Quite literally, many people are dying for lack of discipline in this area: shortening their lives, wasting available energy, losing their mental capacity because they are undisciplined in their eating habits and exercise.

 

Another discipline that is sadly lacking in most Christians is the discipline of spending quality and quantity time with God each day. We think our lives are so full that we can't possibly put another hour into the schedule. Most Christians think if they spend five or ten minutes a day reading their Bible and praying, they've done God a big favor.

 

My friends, this discipline is so very needed in our lives.  And it is discipline. While we are not under law and God will not forsake us if we don't spend daily time with Him, nonetheless we need that time to be able to live the way He wants us to. And that daily time takes discipline. It is pushing your feet out of the bed and putting them on the floor, regardless of how you feel. 

The Nike commercial puts it straight: "Just do it!"

 

Elizabeth Elliot wrote: "We make a huge joke about our self-indulgence and treat with amusement our failure to pull ourselves out of bed early enough to get to work without a hectic rush." But it's no joking matter. Failure to spend consistent, quality time with God so that we are filled up with Him before our day begins is a major common problem. It is where our failure begins. And it requires discipline.

 

Discipline can be learned. And the way we learn it is simply to say yes to God and no to ourselves. Discipline must be exercised in spite of your feelings. I can guarantee you that you will never feel like being disciplined. Exercise has been a difficult discipline for me, because I resent the time it takes. But I know I need exercise to be at my optimum.

 

But let me tell you this, every day I look for an excuse not to do it. Every morning I go through a mental exercise that says, "You don't have time today." "You can do it later." "You deserve a break." Not once have I bounded downstairs and said, "Oh, great, it's time to exercise." I doubt I ever will, but by God's grace I can put that discipline into my life, regardless of how I feel or what my emotions say to me!

 

Jesus said in John 13:17: Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Most of us have large amounts of knowledge. We have ideas and plans, we have good intentions. But we've missed the blessing that comes by doing. We are blessed not by what we know, not by our intentions, not by what we plan, but by what we do. And we do things when we are disciplined.

 

Paul wrote to Timothy that he should discipline himself for the purpose of godliness. Sometimes we think of godly people as people who are angelic, otherworldly beings, not like us, not of this earth. But, my friends, godly people are people who have put consistent disciplines into their lives, and simply stuck to it. Godliness is for all of us, not just for a favored few. God intends that all of His children should live godly lives. But without discipline in our lives in these and other areas, godliness will not be our trademark.

 

Mary’s Bible Study, Guide on Getting To Know God, will help you establish the discipline of time with God. Ask for your copy by calling the ministry at 1-800-292-1218 or shop on our website www.christianworkingwoman.org.