March 17

"Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should" Psalm 90:12 TLB.

"Each day receives an inheritance from yesterday, and at its close passes it down to the day which comes after...In countless ways yesterday's life and today's are intertangled. Each day is but a little section of a great web, containing one figure of the pattern, the warp running through all the days and years. A life is a serial story, opening with infancy, closing with death, and each day is one little chapter in the story." J.R. Miller.

"[Moses] chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time" Hebrews 11:25. Moses understood values. He renounced rank and royalty, "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" Hebrews 11:10. He chose the worst of religion to the best of the world. The pleasures of sin are for a very short time but God's love is everlasting.

There is within life an infrastructure that demands decision. Our foundation can crumble with a momentary gratification; it can also be strengthened when we choose to weigh the consequences. The eye of faith sees beyond the present amusements to the eternal rewards of joy. But Egypt's gold cannot compare with the prospective delights of the Holy City. So Moses could number his days and spend them with the people of God. His priorities were in order. Never again was Moses troubled about the warp and woof of life.

"[We] also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when [we] do not expect him" Luke 12:40. So the better part of wisdom is to know how to spend our days and hours most profitably for God, for others and for ourselves. God guarantees the interest on His loan of life to us!

Pat Nordman ©

March 18

"The woman said, `You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep'" John 4:11.

We stand by the well of life with our pitifully small containers, knowing that the well is too deep for us to perceive. We lower and lower our broken cisterns into the world's offerings of so called wisdom. When we find the well is muddy and putrid, we look around for another who has a larger and whole pitcher and more knowledge of where to look for who possibly can help us. Again we are frustrated; our brothers and sisters are just as uncertain and unsteady as we are. Finally we lose faith and patience, for at last we realize that God has made foolish the wisdom of the world (1 Corinthians 1:20).

Then suddenly one day there stands beside us One who understands all things: our griefs, our sins, our hopes and our dashed hopes. There we are with our skimpy bucket ready to draw again from a well that will not quench our dryness anyway. But we question and cavil and we say to Jesus, "What do you have to draw with? I don't see anything. I can't have faith in You to quench this awful thirst for something better in my life, for I can't see what You have." How sad!

"Suppose there is a well of fathomless trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says, `Let not your heart be troubled'; and you shrug your shoulders and say, `But, Lord, the well is deep; You cannot draw up quietness and comfort out of it.'" Oswald Chambers, MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. Jesus must weep that we have such a difficult time believing that He has the means to dip into the well of life and draw up for us His sustaining graces. And His water doesn't just keep us alive; it makes us alive to all His blessings.

Pat Nordman ©