Teach Us to Number Our Days That We Might See We Are Designed by God

Teach Us to Number Our Days

That We Might See We Are Designed by God

Have you ever taken

a close look at God’s work

in your life?

What would you think

 if I said there is not a day of your life

that God was not with you

and working in your life?

God seems to be so far away at times

and yet the Bible clearly tells us

He never leaves us

"Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you."  

Hebrews 13:5 NIV & Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV

God started working in your life

before you were born.

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully

and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14 NIV

If God has been at work every day in your life,

than it might be a good idea

to take a look at what He has done.

I have 3 children and 4 grand daughters,

the youngest is now 5 years old.

At 9 months, I can see her personality

was very different then the other grand children.

It seems evident that God has given

each one of them a personality before they were born.

Taking a simple personality assessment can reveal

 “How” God wants you to effect the world around you.

There are four basic temperament styles;

and just as a room with 4 walls sees what is in the room differently,

so will you see things differently than others.

That is by God’s design.

Over the next few devotionals,

we will try to look at how God has worked in our days.

My hope is that you will identify

God’s handy work in you and increase your confidence.

I hope you will enjoy numbering our days

as they are designed by God.

Scripture Reading

Psalm 90:12 NIV

12 Teach us to number our days aright,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

 Psalm 139:1-24 NIV

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

5 You hem me in — behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!

Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.

Teach Us to Number Our Days

Teach Us to Number Our Days

Complaining angers God

But hope in God

will help you solve the problem!

Psalms 90 could be very depressive to read.

Moses had seen the anger of God for 40 years.

All of his people, his friends, and family,

who came out of Egypt died in that 40 years,

except Caleb and Joshua. Deuteronomy 1:36-38

In God’s anger, He still provided for them.

Their lives were spent in the wilderness

until another generation was given

the opportunity to believe God

and go after the promise.

Moses watched the Children of Israel

wander in the wilderness.

 From the day they spied out the promise land,

where they chose to focus on the giant challenge

rather than God’s ability to give them

 the great wealth of the land...

The murmuring went on throughout the 40 years.

Moses in Psalms 90:11 asks,

“Who knows the power of your anger?”

It is at this point,

he asked God to teach them how to number their days

so they can gain a heart of wisdom.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments,

murmuring and complaining had angered God.

Moses was a very spiritual man

and he asked God to “teach us.”

In the wilderness,

God had made provision for the people,

but Moses was not satisfied.

Moses wanted to see a reversal.

He asked God to make them glad

for as many days as they had been afflicted.

Moses cried out to learn how to receive God’s favor (grace)

in order to live productive lives.

Who knows, maybe this was the turning point.

It might not have helped those who got out of Egypt,

but did not get Egypt out of them.

They accepted their current position with murmuring

rather than embracing the challenge

that would lead to the promises of God. 

It has become clear to me,

that my days can not make room

for murmuring and complaining

but hope and confidence.

Lord, may your favor be upon our tongue and hands

to establish hope and confidence!

Scripture Reading

Psalm 90:11-17 NIV

11 Who knows the power of your anger?

For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

12 Teach us to number our days aright,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

13 Relent, O LORD!

How long will it be?

Have compassion on your servants.

14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,

that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

for as many years as we have seen trouble.

16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,

your splendor to their children.

17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;

establish the work of our hands for us —

yes, establish the work of our hands.

Teach Us to Number Our Days Recognizing Where You Live

Teach Us to Number Our Days

Recognizing Where You Live

You might be surprised

at where the Bible says you live.

Knowing where you are

will affect your day.

 

It is amazing to think that Adam lived 930 years,

Enosh lived 905 years, Jered 962 years.

Those born before the flood lived almost 1000 years!

Abraham lived to be 175;

Sarah lived to be 127;

Moses lived to be 120.

We, who live in America,

are living to 70 or 80 years.

In Moses’ prayer of Psalms 90,

he makes the point,

“Our days on the earth are short.”

If you were asked,

“Where do you live?”

You might say the name of a state, a city or a town.

If you were asked,

“How long have you lived there?”

You might say all your life or some shorter period of time.

Moses recognized the life spans and how short they are.

In light of all this,

Moses starts the Psalm with the words:

“You have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.”

Moses declared that God is our dwelling place,

no matter when you might have lived,

because He is from everlasting to everlasting.

In Moses’ blessing of the tribes of Israel

in Deuteronomy 33:27, he says,

“The eternal God is your refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms”

Moses looked beyond living in Egypt and in the wilderness.

Moses recognized our dwelling place is in God.

Even when the wrath of God

was on His people for 40 years in the wilderness,

Moses recognized he was in the dwelling place of God.

David said there was no place

he could go from the presences of God.

Some 91 times in the New Testament,

we find the words “in Christ.”

A study of these verses will reveal the wonderful blessings

there are as we dwell in Christ.

Yes, God made the mountains and the plains;

He made the place you live.

He ordained the exact time in history

and place for you to live

so that in the end you and I might find Him and realize that,

“we live and move and have our being in Him”

As we learn to number our days,

let us not forget our real address.

“You have been our dwelling place”

“For in him we live and move and have our being.”

Scripture Reading

Psalm 90:1-2 NIV

90:1 A prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born

or you brought forth the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Psalm 90:12 NIV

12 Teach us to number our days aright,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Acts 17:24-28 NIV

24 "The God who made the world

and everything in it is the Lord of heaven

and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.

25 And he is not served by human hands,

as if he needed anything,

because he himself gives all men life

and breath and everything else.

26 From one man he made every nation of men,

that they should inhabit the whole earth;

and he determined the times set for them

and the exact places where they should live.

27 God did this so that men would seek him

and perhaps reach out for him and find him,

though he is not far from each one of us.

28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'

As some of your own poets have said, 

    'We are his offspring.'