A Glimpse of Me

“LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered—
how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
at best, each of us is but a breath.”

—Psalm 39:4–5

Encouragement for Today

The psalmist asks God to remind him of life’s brevity. Why focus on this? Because we need to be reminded that we can’t accomplish everything we might want to. If we want to live a life of lasting significance, we must submit it to God and ask him what he wants us to do, what he wants to bless. Our own limitations and mortality drive us to God, which is where we need to be. While the world may urge us to focus on human potential, God asks us to focus on limitations—so that we depend on God, not ourselves.

—Diane Eble, author of Abundant Gifts: A Daybook of Grace-Filled Devotions

“If only there were a mediator between us,
someone who could bring us together.
The mediator could make God stop beating me,
and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment.
Then I could speak to him without fear,
but I cannot do that in my own strength.”

—Job 9:33–35

Encouragement for Today

These words express Job’s longing for a mediator, someone who would come between him and his experience of God’s punishment so that Job could speak to God without fear. He recognizes his own lack of strength, his inability to speak to God without fear of punishment. Job’s words here are prophetic; they awaken us to how much we too need this kind of mediator. The mediator described here is exactly who we now have in Jesus—someone who came between us and the judgment we deserve, so we can speak to God without fear. Thank God for your mediator!

—Diane Eble, author of Abundant Gifts: A Daybook of Grace-Filled Devotions

“Do you think your words are convincing
when you disregard my cry of desperation?”

—Job 6:26

Job tells his friend that he can’t even hear what the friend is saying until the friend listens to Job first. If you disregard the state of the person you are trying to persuade, he or she will never be open to what you say. Job needed his friends not to explain things, not to accuse him, but to enter into his pain with him, to show they understood his pain. This is a fundamental relationship principle. True connection starts at the point of the other person’s state of mind and heart. Take time to tune in today in all your relationships.

—Diane Eble, author of Abundant Gifts: A Daybook of Grace-Filled Devotions