“If you knew you only had one month left to live, how would you spend it?”
Through my devotionals recently, I was asked to consider a similar question. The concept threw me a bit off guard at first. Who would ever want to think about their time being limited? But when I thought through it and examined scripture, I began to realize the value of “numbering our days.” If you only had one month left, what would you change about your life? How would you spend your time? Would your priorities be different?
While—Lord-willing—we all have a whole lot longer than one month to live, it was very timely since when I first heard this I only had about a month before leaving for training. It got me thinking about how to make the most of the time I have with family and friends before starting this new season.
If I truly lived each day as if I only had one month left, my life would be completely different. So many things that I thought mattered would not be important anymore. And many things that I thought could wait until… (fill in the blank), would be the priority. If I only had a month to live, I would focus on change in three categories:
My relationship with God
I would spend more time in the Word and in prayer. Each day, I would start, end, and aim to spend every moment in between in communion with the Lord.
My relationship with others
I would focus my time on showing love to others. I would serve sacrificially, give generously, and most importantly share the hope of Christ as much as I possibly could.
My relationship with the things of this world
My focus would shift from security, pleasure, and comfort in the things of this world to finding my hope, joy, and peace in Christ alone. I would focus on what is eternal rather than what is temporary.
How about we switch our perspective from “what if…” to “what now?” Instead of thinking “This is what I would do if…”, how about we start doing it right now? Because the reality is that tomorrow is not guaranteed (see James 4:13-15). So take that step of faith. Walk in obedience. Serve others sacrificially. Give up reliance on the things that don’t have eternal value. And rest knowing that God holds the future in his hands.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12