The Bible contains multiple passages that discuss how God determines the length of a person’s life, including:
- Job 14:5 “A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed”.
- Psalm 139:16 “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”.
- Psalm 90 Discusses how people seem to flourish for a short time before withering and dying.
- James 4:14 “You do not know what tomorrow will bring”.
- Psalm 39 Verses 4 to 5 discuss how a person’s days are like a few hand breaths and their lifetime is nothing before God.
My Days Are Numbered
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
(Psalm 139:16)
How many days do I have left? I don’t know. No one does, except God. He knows the exact number of years, days, hours, and seconds that I will occupy my address on Planet Earth; the exact moment that my death will occur.
Now that may not seem like a cheery thought to you, and in fact, most people would find that sobering, at best, and frightening, at worst. Not me. I find great comfort and security in knowing that God has my life so ordered that I will neither die a day sooner nor live a day longer than what has already been recorded in his book. You see, life and death are far above my pay grade, so I will happily let Father God take care of that department, thank you very much.
So if I truly and correctly understand this profound truth, then I am freed from the fear of death to fully live the life that God has planned for me. I can enjoy an intimate walk with the One Who is intimately involved in each minor detail of my day (Psalm 139:1-4), Who never lets me out of His sight (Psalm 139:5-8), Whose Fatherly hand guides my every move (Psalm 139:9-10) and Who is never limited or intimidated by my circumstances (Psalm 139:11-12). In fact, God is so involved in my life that He was even there at the moment my mother and father conceived me in love, and while I was in the womb, He superintended even the most infinitesimal details of my physiological and temperamental formation.
God knows me! He knows everything about me. He planned me, built me, watches over me, can steer me back on track when I wander from His purpose (Psalm 139:23-24), can be completely trusted to keep me safe until the Divinely allotted numbers of days ordained have expired and then take me to the next life that He has prepared for me. And He has done such an inexpressibly great job with this life. I can’t even begin to imagine what’s on tap for the next!
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand” (Psalm 139:6), but it won’t keep me from enjoying this day and praising the One Who is in charge of it!
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.”
~Augustine
Here are some prayers that ask God to direct our lives:
- A Daily Prayer of Commitment This prayer asks God to direct the speaker’s life, remove obstacles, and make every action pleasing to God.
- Prayers for guidance This prayer asks God to help the speaker trust in Him, give guidance, and provide confidence that God’s direction is best.
- Praying to Know God as Lord Over Every Area of your Life This prayer asks God to be Lord over every area of the speaker’s life and to help them walk in God’s will.
- Prayer for Direction This prayer asks God to grant the speaker the Holy Spirit’s guidance to resolve a problem.
- Let God Make Your Plans This prayer asks God to be invited into the speaker’s decisions, and to be asked for guidance and direction.
Some Bible verses that relate to God directing our lives include:
- Proverbs 16:1, “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord”.
- Proverbs 16:9, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps”.
- Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand”.
- Proverbs 20:24, “A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?”.
- Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will”.