A prayer for wisdom in numbering our days – Psalm 90 : 12

Numbering your days – what does this mean in practical terms? How are we supposed to do this? To make this clear, for a moment compare life with a book with each day having a new page. At night, we turn over the page – another day! However, no matter how many pages the book you are reading has, eventually you will come to the final page. Well, the same applies to the book of our life. Also concerning this book, eventually there will come a day that we will reach the final page, i.e. the page where it no longer reads, “to be continued”, but instead it will read “The End!” That’s the day, when we will die. Unless Christ returns earlier, one day we all will come to that final page of the book of our life.

New Year Eve 2012 – another year has passed. Back to the image of the book, we have come one year closer to the final page. How quickly it went. Time flies by, as we often say it. Somewhere I read, time is like water, if you try to hold on to it, it slips through your fingers and disappears. Well, this happened also to the Year 2012. It slipped through our fingers, just like that. A few more hours, and the Year 2012 will have disappeared. This leaves all of us with this question: as time flies by, how do we number our days.

In Psalm 90, Moses prays for the Israelites that they may number their days in such a way that as fruit of this numbering they may receive a heart of wisdom. Well, that’s how we too should number our days: to gain wisdom!

What kind of wisdom? The answer is very simple: wisdom in seeing God’s hand in our life, God’s hand in each day and each night of the past year. That’s how this on New Year’s Eve we should take time, also in the family circle, to reflect upon the year gone by, closing the year off in a different way than the world around us does it. Out in the world tonight, people are just partying the year away with yet another stubby, another glass of wine or champagne, just to forget for a moment the bitter reality of life. However, they are simply deceiving themselves. When tomorrow morning they wake up with a tremendous hangover, they will have to conclude that nothing has changed. Life just carries on as before.

 In faith, we know it’s different. Reflecting upon another year gone by, we know also 2012 was a year of the LORD; a year that brought us closer to Christ’s return, i.e. closer to the final destination of our life. That’s how in faith we reflect upon the year gone by, seeing God’s hand in all the events that took place during the past year.  Have you seen God’s hand in all these events? After all – even though in many ways it surpassed our understanding – none of these events happened by chance, but they all came from God’s fatherly hand.

See, that’s wisdom, if you can see it like this. If we can see it like this also concerning all the events that took place in our personal life during the year gone by: God’s hand when there were joyful days to number, but also when there were sad days to number, days of which at the time we perhaps thought, how will I ever get through this day? Yet God carried us through.

So in numbering all these days of the past year can you say that you have gained wisdom? Or to say it in more personal way, can you say that through all that happened during the past year in the world as well as in your personal life > on this New Year’s Eve can you say 2012 has brought me closer to God. If that is the case, you have numbered well.

2012 – the year is almost gone. As from midnight, all that has happened during this year belongs to the past. It’s passed, we cannot turn it around: the things we did wrong, for example. Yet, instead of therefore trying to forget them, since we can’t change it anyway, perhaps we should give them some thought, acknowledging also the dark pages of our life, which there were during the past year, pages with our sins all over it. In addition, where we have confessed to God what was written on those dark pages, next, let the light of God’s grace shine over them and rejoice. That’s how despite the many things we did wrong during past year, we still may close off this year on a high note, by clinging to God. When doing so, don’t forget to count also the many blessings God bestowed upon you during the past year, thanking Him for it.

Numbering your days in faith makes you wise, wise in Jesus Christ, who came into this world, assumed our flesh, a true human nature, in which He numbered 33 years with us. 33 years, during which our Lord and Saviour bore in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. He did so for us, for you and me, in our place, so that today we may number our days in the light of God’s grace, no matter how dark at times it may seem from a physical point of view. In faith we may look beyond this and in doing so we may number our days differently.

When reflecting upon the year gone by this way, we can only stand in awful admiration of God’s wonderful grace during each day of the past year. Then we look at all that we received, not only materially, but also spiritually, and this despite the many sins and shortcomings there daily were from our side, despite the lack of zeal and thankfulness there often was from our side. Despite all this – instead of having been consumed by God’s wrath, God’s mercies were new every morning. Yes, then one stands in awe of the goodness of the LORD: “LORD, how great is Thy faithfulness towards me a sinner”

I wish all who read this a blessed 2013. We keep numbering, how long still. None of us knows. The Year 2013 might be the year of Christ’s return. It might also be that during the coming year we will face the day that it no longer reads “to be continued”, but “The End!” instead. Is this something to be scared off? It’s not when we keep numbering our days in faith, holding God’s hand; the hand which guides history and which guides also your and my life. In that knowledge, with that wisdom given from above, we will be able to cope, whatever 2013 may have in store for us.

 

Reflections of a retired minister

Although I officially retired only three weeks ago, now already people ask me, “How is it going?” Well, let me say the reality of it still has to set in, though my wife and I enjoy it that during a time which was often hectic in the ministry (December) we now can relax and have more time for the family and for each other.

At present there is still a lot of reminisce on what has been. When doing so, I stand in awe of God’s amazing grace that I was allowed to work in the ministry for 37 years. It was a humbling experience each Sunday again to be allowed to pass on the riches of the gospel, often feeling weak, knowing – as the apostle Paul writes it in 2 Cor. 4, 7 – that we carry this treasure in an earthen vessel. Looking back today,  things that come to mind are more often than not the shortcomings, failures and sins, visits that should have been brought, yet were forgotten or missed; times when the message could have been passed on more correctly. As ministers, we are in need of God’s grace as much as each member of the congregations.  Thus, looking back upon 37 years of ministry, I can cling to God’s grace only!

Although often humbling, nevertheless it was a joy to do the work of a minister, a wonderful task. If I had to make the choice again, I would not choose anything else, even though at times it was also difficult work, especially when I think back of those beginning years; years during which consistories were less considerate as far as exchanges are concerned than today. Less considerate at times also were it concerned off-loading the work. You were a minister, you had been called and so you had to it. It surely was a learning curve. Yet the LORD in His grace gave strength.

Reflecting upon the work I was allowed, next to the preaching I also think of the pastoral work in visiting the members of the congregation in joy and in sadness, in days of struggle and turmoil. In all those circumstances, it was a privilege to pass on the Word of God, a privilege to be a tool in God’s hand to comfort and to encourage, but also when there was need to warn and admonish.

I think of the many baptism visits, always a joy to bring; the pre-marital sessions with young couples preparing themselves for marriages – always great evenings! I also think of many a visit in which I had to warn – often feeling helpless, but again there was the power of the Word God. To Him be glory!

When I think of the young people of the church, I think of the joy of teaching catechism, trying to give them practical guidance. Drawing the circle a bit wider, I also think of the many congresses, where I was invited to speak. I vividly remember the congress with the theme “Living Holy Lives” as well as the National Youth Convention earlier this year. Yet I think also back of the earlier Bible Study Camps, organized by the youth of Albany each year around Australia Day, the Bible Study Camps at Camp Quaranup, where later on also the first marriage enrichments camp were held.

Reflecting on all these things, all thanks goes to God alone, who in His grace gave me the strength and the wisdom to do all this.

When thanking God, I also want to thank Him for all that He gave me in my wife as a wonderful support. She was always there, never thinking of herself, but trying to be there for me. To be there for the children, when Dad had to go on yet another trip be it to PNG or Tasmania, or during the days in Albany for another trip to Perth, often from Friday to Monday. She never complained.

So what will retirement be like?  First, I hope to get better. It’s our fervent prayer that the LORD will give energy back and then I hope to be able to preach again and also do some writing. Hopefully during the course of 2013 the book “Learning the alphabet of faith” will be published with the sermons I delivered on the ABC of faith. If the LORD gives health and strength, I also hope to write some meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism. Perhaps I can run a few more marriage enrichment’s camps. I would love to do this. Yet it’s all the Lord willing. My wife and I also hope to have more time now for children and grandchildren. We pray that we may still be there for them for a long time.

As the festive season draws near and we come close to the end of another year, I wish all of you a joyful Christmas; joyful, when we reflect upon the peace given to us in the coming of Christ, our Lord and Saviour. As for the year to come, we pray that this wonderful peace may fill your hearts each day, whatever may lay ahead.