“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart
of wisdom, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
And we know that in all things God works for the good
of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Being confident
of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion
until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Psalm 90:12, Ephesians 5:16, Romans 8:28,
Philippians 1:6 NIV
The word of God impulses us that “… we may
gain a heart of wisdom, making the most of every opportunity, because the days
are evil. (Psalm 90:12, Ephesians 5:16) Hence, the
Bible urges us:
Be very careful,
then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every
opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but
understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to
debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:15-18)
Like what Ephesians 5:16 states, the days are evil. They
are also passing away that the end would be death, “for the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23) However, the next part of
this verse declares: “… but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Thus, if we are Christians,
we know that we need to overcome the world. This is because “we know that we are children of God, and
that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19)
Everyone who
believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves
the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the
children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the
love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not
burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this
is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes
the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5)
Do not love this
world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not
have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for
physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements
and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And
this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone
who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17)
Hence, we need to deny our sinful desires
and passions (Matthew 16:24-25), and start to be filled
with the Spirit of God (Ephesians 5:18) to do His will (John 14:15-17,26-27). This is because our
destiny and our eternal home is in the kingdom of heaven. (Phillippians 3:20-21, 2 Corinthians 5:1)
Jesus Christ also declares in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Therefore, I urge
you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his
good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What
is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider
them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I
want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and
participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so,
somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my
goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of
me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of
it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is
ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7-14)
Therefore, we only
have to trust and follow the Holy Spirit wherever it leads us. Thus, the word
of God proclaims:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths
straight. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 14:17)
His [Jesus Christ’s] divine power has given us everything we need for a
godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that
through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness;
and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to
self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness,
mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these
qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and
unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not
have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed
from their past sins.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your
calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and
you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-11)
“For through the
law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I
now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19-20)
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will
have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my
body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is
gain. (Philippians 1:20-21)
Because I am a true follower of Jesus
Christ, I need to be wise by following the Holy Spirit all the time. However, I
often stumble and fail with time-management. Thus, I changed my schedules
because I believe it is hard to do the school work in the same day as my
devotional-writing. Although, I changed my devotional-writing days into
Thursday until Monday since I have no school in these days, it is still hard,
due to weariness. Thus, when these days come, I literally do not sleep in
nights until I have done devotional-writing. This is because I know that this is a part of the will
of God. “For physical training is of some
value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the
present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves
full acceptance.” (1 Timothy 4:8-9)
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