We chose to eat out for lunch one day this week.  Those seated at the table with us were visiting for a few days, so we chose to meet ‘dad’ for lunch (because he was the only one who was required to go to work and we wanted to share time with him).  Our lunch was filled with tasty dishes, full of flavor and substance, and soon we were ready to step out into the sunshine.  I offered to pay as the rest went outside, and as I stood at the counter with credit card in hand, I looked around at the items hanging here and there.  My eyes saw employees filling glasses with ice, others cooking and filling orders, and then my eyes paused on the calendar hanging on the wall.  Half of the days had been crossed off, marking off the days lived.  We’ve seen this image often, and maybe (like me) you have even kept a calendar like this, marking off the days as they pass by.

Yet, as I stood there absorbing the enormity of this simple action:  marking the days, the LORD caused me to pause, to dwell, to see the enormity of this simple action.

Each day we arise, we are given choices regarding how our day will go. Even if work beckons us forward, we still have decisions to make in the way we will approach this new day.  Thus, as these new days come, as the morning sun continues to arise, and as the dark is wiped away from the sky, our new days take shape.  Mindfully, we must ask:  LORD, have I sought You in the plans I have made?

We read in the Bible how David, a simple shepherd boy grew to become a warrior and was anointed the new king of Israel, even while he was still a boy tending his father’s sheep.  If we read enough, we will see how he fought many battles, fighting against lions and bears, standing tall against the giant of a man, Goliath, and even had to run for his very life when the current King Saul pursued him, wanting to take young David’s life.  Yes, if we stay in God’s Word, reading enough, we will see how David one time even pretended madness and chose to spare King Saul’s life not once but twice.  Maybe at this point, you are reading and wondering:  Why is it so important to look at the man David’s life?  Why should we care to know.

In the Bible, it reveals how this man David was a man after God’s own heart, but still a man, just as us, one with fears.

David lived a rich life, one filled with the desire to live long, one where (if he had a calendar) we would see how he marked the days of his life, proclaiming—

• What about us?
• Are we marking the days of our spiritual walk with the LORD?
• Is our personal faith journey filled with seeking the Lord, relying upon Him & receiving deliverance from the fears that seem to steal our sleep?

Maybe we read God’s Word and think, ‘that was then & this is now.’

Maybe we think, ‘the LORD surely will not give us deliverance today.’

Friend, our Father wants the same for us still today.

May you and I mark our Days, “tasting and seeing how the LORD is good.”

Our Father wants us to remember how our days are numbered and have been from our mother’s womb.  We read how God numbered their duration, even before HE gave us our first day.  We who choose to believe realize how He desires that we remember who we were before we trusted Him.  Before Christ entered our hearts, we were living in captivity, held by the devil’s lies, trapped in our sinfulness and clearly without any eternal hope.

May we pause today and hear our Savior calling us from deep within to fully trust, to—

Let us NOT just ‘make it through our days,’ but let us purposely lean into our LORD, seeing and experiencing all that HE has for us.  Envision what our days COULD BE.

Recall:  God sees what we cannot.

Beginning today, as we mark off our days lived, may we forever remember.