Numbering Our Days 1

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90: 12).

What does numbering our days have to do with becoming wise?

The numbering, does not simply mean to keep track of how many days a person has lived. It means valuing each day, acting as if each day might be the last, being certain that each day counts, and that no day drifts aimlessly into another without purpose or cause. You could say we are to attend to each day as a treasured commodity, not as if days are available in endless supply.

Wisdom

Moses realized we needed the Lord to teach us how to value each day. If He didn’t, we would not be able to pay attention to wisdom-building in our lives. He asks the Lord to do just that in this verse. The most accurate understanding of wisdom is always going to come from Scripture. The Bible is where we learn that becoming wise is directly connected with fearing the Lord (“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”). It tells us that His Word is Truth. It announces that our natural thinking does not measure up and we need to have our thinking transformed to align ourselves with what God wants (“Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. . .”).

We must be careful not to make the mistake of thinking that wisdom is primarily a mental skill (i. e. our minds know what is the best thing to say or do because we “know” what the Bible has to say about a particular issue). Wisdom, according to Psalm 90: 12, needs the heart to function in the wisdom-acquiring process, not just the mind gathering knowledge. Verse 12 also teaches that the process is active: we do the applying and whatever profit, gain, or abundant bounty is the result, comes from both applied hearts and renewed minds.

How do minds get renewed? How can Christ’s mind become our minds? Our natural thoughts must change to align and agree with Christ’s thinking.  But knowing God’s thinking for any given aspect of life is not enough, His thinking has to have free rein to direct, alter, and refocus the way we think AND the practical choices and decisions that come from our thinking.

Thinking God’s thoughts is directly tied to our faithful meditation upon and study of God’s Word—and herein lies the tragic breakdown in a growing relationship with the Lord.  While we clearly sense, and indeed, are constantly reminded, even admonished, to “spend time in the Word,”  “to let the Word of God dwell in you richly,” and to “renew our mind,” the reality is, many “church attenders” and “Bible believers” are inconsistent, undirected, and ineffectual at absorbing the Truth of God’s Word into their hearts and lives.

The Problem

Many are inconsistent and irregular at spending any time in the Word.  Stewart Custer mentioned in his book, Tools for Preaching and Teaching the Bible,  that many pastors sense that fully ninety percent of those who come to them for counsel from their congregations are not consistent in daily Bible reading and/or study (p 15). Another pastor said his first assignment for those coming for counsel was to have them commit to two weeks of regular Bible reading before their next appointment. He found they often came to the second appointment with spiritual direction of their own to apply to their problem. God’s Word is powerful, and we neglect it to our detriment.

As sorry as the statistic  of inconsistent time in the Word is, the widespread ineffectiveness of our Bible study habits may even surpass the widespread inconsistency of Bible study habits. Put the two together, and it’s no wonder the believing world is so anemic.

We view reading through the Bible as a monumental chore that only a very few highly disciplined and academically bright individuals can achieve.

Or we pride ourselves on reading “something” from the Bible each day, but the “something” is one verse from a daily devotional guide, and a full page of the author’s thoughts about the verse.

Our reading might consist of a few randomly chosen verses or, on an inspired day, re-reading most of the chapter from which last Sunday’s sermon was taken.  It may be a short passage that we copied onto a now well-worn card, and bring out and read more as a good luck charm than as food for conscious meditation.

Our personal involvement with Scripture has never taken us to Nahum, or even Jude, though our salvation decision was recorded decades ago.  Bible “study” sounds painfully like school, boring reading, tests, and assignments—work we NEVER would choose to do on our own.

Paradoxically, while we acknowledge the great need for believers to “know the Book,” we live like a sermon or two a week is really all we need to keep us abreast of what’s important, placate God,  and appease our consciences that we have actually done more than should be expected in today’s busy, demanding world to “know God.” Let’s see if we can turn the corner on such failings.