“Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

What is the importance and usefulness of time to you? What is it worth to you? If it is so important to you; if it is so priceless, how are you using it? How much time do you have on your hands at every moment of your life? How many years do you have on this earth? You do well knowing this, but how about managing it? How do you prioritize it? With what urgency do you maintain your priorities?
Moses reflected on this subject while they wandered in the wilderness for forty years, virtually, not knowing what they were doing. They had set out to go to Canaan; the land God said was flowing with milk and honey. However, because of their disobedience and grumbling, God had decreed that they could not enter until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died. And so, the Israelites drifted aimlessly in the desert with no destination in sight. As Moses looked back and saw how his friends and countrymen dropped dead one after another in the desert, he sought to find some meaning to life and the significance of it. He pleaded with God to give them some insight to help guide their lives.

First, Moses acknowledged that our lives are in the hands of the self-existent and everlasting God ((Ps. 90:1-3). He recognized that our sense of time is not in sync with the timing of God who holds our lives in His hands (4). He then came to terms with the brevity of life and the uncertainty of its duration (5-6; 10). But during this brief and uncertain period of our time here on earth, we suffer under the judgment of God as a consequence of the fall in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:14-19) and “we finish our years with a moan” (Ps. 90:9). In lieu of these realities of life, Moses pleaded with God to “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (12).
Time is a priceless commodity. We don’t own it. We do not control its length of lives. That is in the hands of God. Yet we have a responsibility before Him to bring meaning to our lives during the time He has given us on this side of eternity. That means we have to use our time well and make it count according to His purpose for us. We, therefore, have a management job on our hands. We can do so well at planning it; and we have to. We can make all the resolutions and engage the latest and sophisticated time management tools; and they are essential. We can have the best schedules and follow them dutifully; and that is also laudable. However, if we do all those things and yet do not understand the value of time – knowing the fleeting nature of time and managing each moment with eternal perspective – they are meaningless. Like the men from “Issachar who understood the times and knew what to do” (1 Chron. 12:32), we should know the dispensation we live in and be wise in the use of every minute of it. What Moses was saying then is this: Unless we come to grips with the brevity of time and its uncertainty and impute eternal value to it, we will never be wise. No matter how long or short it is for us, bringing its eternal value into perspective enlightens our hearts and makes us wise in its management.
If, as Moses says, our lives “quickly pass, and fly away” (10), do we have to wait until we become old and then look back and ask where our time has gone? Do we have to wait until all our strength is gone before we look back and ask what we spent our time on? If there is a lease on our lives here on earth, how are we spending our time now? Have we become like the Israelites, wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, with no specific destination in sight? Have we lost our sense of purpose? Are we keeping eternity and the goal of winning crowns in sight (2 Tim. 4:7-8)? How are those considerations affecting our life choices and engagements?

That is the greatest challenge of our lives, and the answer is found only in Jesus and an intimate and obedience walk with Him.