What do you find when you look back on your year? Regret or wisdom?
This is Felicia Ferguson with Christian Mix 106, helping you build faith for the journey.
Moses in Psalm 90 asks God, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” And as I near the end of every year, I unconsciously begin to number or think back over my days. I reflect on where I am emotionally, spiritually, and relationally compared to where I started out for the year.
In the past, it ended up often being a discouraging or depressing act. I would focus on the heart’s desires I still lacked and the dreams that continued to be unrealized.
But Moses said numbering my days would give me a heart of wisdom, not sorrow. When I looked back and focus on the not yets, or the didn’t have’s, I wasn’t finding wisdom but regret and worry. This led me to question my own actions and whether I had or hadn’t done something that led to my current state and pulled my focus away from God and wisdom.
Now, when I look back and number my days, I look for God’s hand, his direction, his voice. When did he comfort me in my sorrow? When did he open a door no one but him could have opened? Where did he help me heal a long-standing wounding? And when I look for God as I number my days, I find that Moses was right. I do gain wisdom. Wisdom about God’s nature, his promises, his faithfulness. And the regret, the worry, the sorrow melts away.
As this year comes to a close, I encourage you as you reflect to look for God in your days and hold onto him instead of the don’t haves and not yets. Because when the time is right, God will make them happen and until then, you can grow in your faith and relationship with him.
This is Felicia Ferguson, thanks for listening to Christian Mix 106.