Have you ever faced your own mortality? People who know they should be dead, but got a second chance at life often make changes. It is as if they suddenly realized what matters most. A man on TV’s “I Should Not Be Alive,” was lost 20 days in the jungle at Cozumel—he had no food, almost no water, and enough mosquitoes to keep him from ever sleeping. He survived and decided to be kinder. Nebuchadnezzar survived seven years out of his mind, living as an animal, and served God after that instead of himself. In 1997 I had a car wreck that everyone said I should not have survived. I think about death and eternity, eternal rewards and similar things much more than previously. It is wise to consider your death.
“Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure” Ecclesiastes 7:3-4.
David even prays for that perspective:
“Lord, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of my days. Let me know how short-lived I am. You have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every man is a mere vapor. He walks about like a shadow. He makes an uproar for nothing, rushing around in vain, gathering possessions with no idea who will end up with them” Psalm 39:4-6.
Ask God to give you the wisdom that comes from knowing that life is short, so you can use your time wisely. Store up treasures in heaven, where nothing can destroy them—rather than on earth, where moth and rust and termite can destroy. Ask God to make heaven your priority, not earth. Consider the chorus of a poem/hymn by C.T. Studd:
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
ΑΩ
Household Words: 