Title Count the Days / Psalm 90:8-12
Count the remaining days / Psalm 90:8-12, 1 Corinthians 16:21-24
The person who said 'yesterday' came to the person who said 'tomorrow'. And I told him to listen because I'll tell you something that will help me in the future.
“When I was a young man like you, I had great joy in whatever I did and I had hope. But while I was dreaming once, the pleasant times passed, and I was left alone behind. When I woke up, the name was changed to become 'today'. I got up and started running, but the distance I could run was too short, and at the end of that day, the name was changed again and it became ‘Yesterday’. I'm not even halfway through what I want to do. Of course, no going back was allowed. you are still young But after one dream, the name changes. If you want to do something, you have to prepare everything right now, right now. Because you will soon become ‘today’ and ‘yesterday’.”
As the philosopher Schiller said, "The future comes with hesitation, the past stands still forever, and the present flies like an arrow." These are stories that tell us how we should live in the midst of time. December is here again this year. When I look back on the year, too many regrets and regrets remain.
Moses in today's text also confesses that when he looks back on his life, it has passed in an instant. And we are praying for wisdom to number our days. It is impossible to count the remaining days, but if we live with the mind of counting the remaining days, surely our future will be changed beautifully.
So how do you count the remaining days? What does it mean to count the remaining days?
1. To count the remaining days means to live a life that is not tied to the past.
Psychologist Jung says that our instincts, or ids, shape our past. In other words, the false consciousness or moral consciousness suppresses the instinct, so that the instinct is left as the subconscious or unconscious. This instinct keeps us stuck in the past.
When you watch a baseball game, you will occasionally see a pitcher who was good at throwing a home run or a long bat on loss and standing with a bewildered expression or sitting down altogether. From that point on, the pitcher begins a fight with himself. If he cares about hitting a home run, he will obviously have control problems and will not be able to fill the remaining innings and will be substituted. But if he manages himself well and maintains his pace without paying attention to being hit by a home run, he will not concede any more and will enjoy the glory of a winning pitcher.
There are times when we too are in the same position as the pitcher who hit the home run. If we keep clinging to the past, it will inevitably have a huge negative impact on the rest of our lives. We must live a life that prepares for the future with the mind of counting the remaining days.
Peter, Moses, and David also made great mistakes. Peter denied and cursed Jesus three times, Moses also killed a man, and David committed murder and adultery by taking Bathsheba. But these were all beautiful people in their end. The reason is that he lived a life of preparing for the future with the mind counting the remaining days without being bound by his shameful and humiliating past.
Therefore, we must live with a heart that counts the days remaining. The past is to be forgotten and the future is to be prepared. Don't dwell on the past and live in anticipation of the new things God has given you in your life.
“Do not remember the former things, and do not think of the former things. Behold, I will do a new thing, and now it will be revealed... … (Isa 43:1819).”
2. To count the remaining days means to live as stewards of time.
In today's text, Moses expresses his regret that he was called to be a steward of time, but he did not make good use of the time that was given to him. Psalm 90:9-10 says, “All our days pass in thy wrath, and our whole life was spent in one eclipse. Our years are seventy, and if we are strong, we are eighty years old, but the pride of those years is our toil and sorrow, and they go quickly and we fly away.
Moses confesses that all he has gained from his eighty years of life, which has been wasted without knowing God's will, is toil and sorrow. It is a confession that you have wasted too much of the precious time God has given you. It means that there are more than twice as many times when I have lived for myself without God than I did for God.
How are you guys? Are there times in your life that you use for God? It is said that the members of the early church in Korea gave their precious time as a day offerring to God. Are we really living our time as a day offerring to God? Don't you have more days to live for me than the days you lived for God like Moses?
We must be stewards of time. We need wisdom to manage the beautiful times that will unfold before us. It takes determination to use our time for God.
There is a book called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. He talks about how successful people should manage and use their time in this book. Ordinary people spend most of their time on urgent and important things, so they keep their mind and body busy, stressed and exhausted. Also, some people spend their time on things that are urgent but not important or that are not urgent or important. He says it's pointless to spend time on such things.
But successful people are people who put their time into things that are not urgent, he says. Non-urgent, important things are things that you don't have to do right now, but you need to do for the future. You don't have to do things like health care, children's education, cutie, and savings right now. But when you invest in such things, your future will be healthy and beautiful. Kobe says someone who invests time in these things is an effective time manager.
Those who count and live the remaining days mentioned in today's text are those who use their precious time for things that are not urgent and important, that is, stewards of time. The stewards of time do not mistake the time given to them as their own. Those who remember that the time I am using is also God's creation, and manage it and use it wisely.
Now, I hope you too have the wisdom to count the days remaining. I hope that you will not be bound by the past and become a steward of time and become the protagonist of the beautiful and precious life that will unfold before you.
Pastor Gyeom-il Nam