STOP ✋
Before reading further, this note is for you if you are younger than me (or older) and you think that you have plenty of time. If you believe you don’t need to worry about squandering the fragile melting gift of time that has been bequeathed to you, think again! In reality, time is slipping through your grasp like a melting thin sheet of ice under the desert sun. You temporarily hold a priceless treasure of time and youth. Don’t be apathetic or dismissive about my age thinking you’re younger so my pondering and prayers don’t apply to you. They do! Time is ticking for you too. You must also seize the day and make every minute count. We don’t know how much longer our clocks will tick. Let’s seize the day. Carpe diem!
My Birthday Prayer
Wow. I can’t believe I’ll soon be 45 years old (or is it 86 years old, or 70 or 63?). Hmmm… does age really matter? Is what I do with my time what really matters?
Today is the last day of my 48th year (that # sounds good!). While I could think of all the past mistakes, and wallow in the pain and grief of days and years gone by, I long to step into the future and make it count exponentially more than my past.
Miraculously through God’s grace, may I redeem the lost time and missed opportunities of the last 48 years. I desperately cry to God that I may forget the past, and leave that which is behind, so that I press forward with all my might, soul, and spirit to make the remainder of my life a treasure before God. May I embrace the priceless gift of His mercy, love, and forgiveness. With a determined heart, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.*
God, today I close the chapter of the past and put it into your treasure chest of mercy and forgiveness. I close the doors of what-ifs and should-haves.
As I stand here on the threshold of my future and I prepare to step into my 49th year, it is so easy to think of the past failures, mistakes, sins, and regrets, but I must not look into the past. I must turn my face toward the future in full confidence knowing that You are holding me. With a long life You will satisfy me and show me my salvation.
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*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 3:12-14)
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. ” – Psalm 91:14-16
Beautiful In Time 