LIVING WELL
Today
is the first day of the New Year 2023. Thank God we are alive and are given a
fresh start for what purpose? How do we approach the New Year? What old and
unhealthy habits are we going to give up, and what new and healthy habits are
we going to cultivate?
"Betty Maxfield, who survived the 9/11 tragedy at
the Pentagon, said, "I should've been dead. I was, for some reason, saved.
My question now is, what am I supposed to do with it? I just can't go waste it.
I thought I was living my life well before, but obviously, there's more that I
can do to say thank you for my life and a second chance at it."[1] How are we living our
lives?
A Tibetan Proverb gives us a secret to Living Well.
"The secret to living well and long is: Eat half, walk double, laugh
triple, and love without measure." It sounds very Biblical to me. My
prayer for Hope Church six years ago was, "Oh, Lord, please restore true
worship. Give us an undivided heart and a willing spirit. Restore our vision so
that we might serve you and glorify your name." I hope we see the fruit of that prayer and
will see more fruit in the future.
Today we will explore the prayer or song of Moses in
Psalm 90 to discover some principles of a well-lived and lasting life. The heading
"A prayer of Moses the man of God, attributes to Moses as the writer.
Moses has been referred to as the man of God three times and the servant of God
one time. (Duet 33:1, Joshua 14:6, Ezra 3:2, Rev 15:3). The time frame of this
Psalm might have been around the deaths of Aaron and Miriam (Num 20).
A brief overview of the Psalm: Vs. 1-2, Finding our
home in God and His eternal origin. Vs. 3. God's judgment. Vs. 4-6, God's and
our perception of time. Vs. 7-8, God's wrath and punishment for our sins. Vs.
9-11the brevity of life. Vs. 12 Praying for Wisdom. 13-17. Praying for mercy
and blessing. Let's glean some principles that might help us live well.
I.
Living Well involves a renewed vision of God being our home. (Vs. 1-2)
Vs. 1-2, "Lord, through all the generations, you
have been our home! Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to
the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God." First and
foremost, we should have a renewed vision of God's splendor and majesty to live
well. Which in turn allows us to live in humility and produces a fear of God.
The biggest problem of our generation is that there is
no fear of God among people, particularly young people. They live like little
gods, thinking they are the universe's center. Earlier generations had such a
heavenly vision of God and His mighty power and were amazed.
This Psalm was written during the wilderness, where
nearly 600 million people were displaced in one way, not having a home to live
in, and were on their way to the promised land. During those forty years of
wilderness, God has been their" home, protecting them, sheltering them
from vices of their enemies and other natural calamities."
Moses rightly began this Psalm addressing God, Lord,
in Hebrew Adonai means the Sovereign Lord. We must see God as sovereign over
all things and all people. There is no one equal to Him. God was in the
beginning. He is God today and will continue to be God forever.
We must also see Him as our home, refuge, dwelling
place, or shelter. He is the strong tower; we can run to Him and be loved,
comforted, and protected by Him. The God of Moses and the God of Israel came to
the earth and made His Home among us in Jesus. That Jesus promised those who
believe in Him the right to become the children of God.
A beautiful thing that happens to anyone who believes
in Jesus is that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will come and
make their home in their hearts. In that sense, no believer on earth is homeless.
We have our home in Him. A home is where we rest; we can be ourselves,
where love and happiness dominate. Living well begins by cultivating a
relationship with God.
II.
Living Well requires a fresh outlook on God's mighty power at work.
Vs.
3-4, "You turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, you
mortals!" For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a
few night hours. You sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are
like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning, it blooms and
flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered."
Moses and the Israelites saw firsthand
how God dealt with the arrogant Pharoah and his mighty Egyptian Army. God swept
them away in the waters of the red sea. Upon seeing God's mighty power,
Israelites were amazed and put their faith in God and His servant Moses.
That amazement did not last long;
people quickly lost sight of God's incredible power and His mighty acts of
deliverance after the deaths of Moses and Joshua. Judges 2:3, "After that
generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or
remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. What caused such
deterioration among God's people?
What happened then is currently
happening in our midst, especially in the western world. In the '80s, several
of us got saved at the tail end of a mighty worldwide revival of God. We
hungered and thirsted for God's word. We put our faith in God and seldom
question Him.
Forty years later, several young
people who grew up in Christians homes do not share the same faith or values as
their parents. Many are deconstructing their faith. They question the very
fundamental doctrines of Christianity. What has gone wrong? Have Christian
parents forgotten to pass on their devotion to their children? Or is the devil
deceiving them?
Or are we living in the last days? Matthew 24:12 says,
"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold."
I see all these happening in the western world in particular. How can we
reverse this rapid deterioration of the Christian faith and save our
generation? It is by renewing our vision of God, joining Him in the end-time
harvesting.
III.
Living well requires praying to God for wisdom.
Vs. 12. "Teach
us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom." Teach us
to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (NIV). When Moses considered the
brevity of life when he said, "Seventy years are given to us. Some even
live to eighty, But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon,
they disappear, and we fly away."
Moses did not say seventy or eighty years as either a
promise or a limit but as a poetic estimate of a lifespan. We have seventy-plus
among us. They are still vital and actively serving God. Moses himself went on
to live for 120 years. The emphasis is not on the length but on the futility of
life. Considering life's shortness and sorrows, how are we to live?
We pray to God to teach us to number our days so that we
grow wise in heart and mind. In other words, to live in the awareness that our
life might end at any time. Therefore as long as we have breath in our mortal
bodies, we want to make the most of our time.
The Apostle Paul's
New Year's message to the Ephesians may have been "to make the most of
every opportunity in these evil days." Ephesians 5:16. Make the most of
every opportunity literally means "redeem the time." We are all given
an equal amount of time each day. How we use it determines its value. When we
redeem the time for Christ, we value it most.
Here is how we can practically redeem our time. Psalm 90:14
says, "Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love so we may sing for
joy to the end of our lives." If you want to have a productive and
fruitful day by the end of each day, do you want to sleep in peace?
Begin your day in prayer and reading God's word; live in
the awareness of God's love for the rest of the day. Cultivate a healthy habit
of reading the Bible daily for the next 365 Days. Living well begins by taking
God as our refuge, having a renewed focus on His mighty power, and asking God
for wisdom. May God help us as we make Living Well our goal in 2023.
