James 4:14 – “You do not even know what your life will be like tomorrow!  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Job 14:1 – “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil.”

Psalm 90:12 – “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”

While I was praying, the image of an hourglass arose in my mind.  It was filled with sand, some of it had seeped into the lower chamber and some was still to be seeped out.  I heard in my heart of hearts – “Your life is like a sand-filled hourglass.  Each grain of sand represents the time you will live on the earth.” 

The problem was that I could not see the sand inside the container for it was not transparent like the glass hourglasses we typically see.  If life were like an hourglass and we could see how much of life has been spent and how much remains we might adjust our lives accordingly.  The problem is none of us knows how much sand is in the container.  None of us can see how much has been lived and how much is to be lived.  None of us knows how much sand was in the container at the beginning. 

We only have this moment in time.  God determines the length of our days.  Yet, he places before us life to be lived each moment of each day as an offering to Him.  How much time we have is not nearly as important as how we live that time.

When the last drop of sand falls into the lower portion of the hourglass that’s it.  We cannot flip the container over and begin anew watching the sand seep through to the lower portion.  We do not get ‘do overs’ in life.  We pass through once and then according to the Bible we stand before God in judgment. (Hebrews 9:27).  According to Romans 14:12, we will each give an account of how we lived here on earth.

Jesus instructed us not to be anxious about tomorrow.  (Matthew 6:34).  David urged us to live each day delighting ourselves in the LORD. (Psalm 37:4).  Also, we are encouraged to live by faith believing that God has a path for us to follow and that in His presence there is fullness of joy and at His right hand pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11).  The apostle Paul directed us to do everything we do unto the LORD, not for self or man. (Colossians 3:23).

Jesus promised that He would not leave us without comfort or guidance.  He promised that He would come back for us.  He assured us that He was unchanging, and we know that He completely defeated the devil.  Therefore, we are to live victorious, joyous, content, and with hope.  The number of grains of sand in our hourglass is not the important point, how we live those moments is.

So, I ask that you consider your life like it is an hourglass filled with the sands of time.  You do not know how many grains (days or years) you have, but while you have life learn to live!  You cannot see how much time is left or even how much is spent.  You can calculate your years but that means little when it comes to your hourglass.  You can assume to know with relative certainty how much time is left based on how much has been spent, but God is the one who ultimately determines that.

The point I am attempting to convey is you have time but how much you do not know.  You have your life on earth but for how long you do not know.  What you can control is what you do with the time you have.  I suggest that we should make it our ambition to please the LORD.  We should live each moment as if this would be our last day on the planet.  We should seek first and foremost God’s kingdom and righteousness.  Jesus said, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you can ask whatever you will, and it will be done unto you.” (John 15:7).

We have been granted a great treasure, the treasure of Life.  We are to be good stewards of that life and managers of the time He has put in our hands.  You are important to God and to others that you may not even know.  You are influencing others, so let’s seek to have the greatest impact possible when the last grain of sand falls to the bottom of our Life’s Hourglass.

God bless you and you live this day focused on Him!