Since my stroke, in times of reflection, I catch myself wishing God would take me back to time before my stroke so I could correct my shortcomings. Have you ever been lost in thoughts like that? You long for a do-over. This is sort of thinking is regret, not numbering our days.
I believe God wants us not to look back with regret, but to look forward, making our days count for Him and for His glory. Looking forward, we remember, “God created me—and you—to live with a single, all transforming purpose—namely a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all spheres of life” (John Piper, 2007).
Reflecting on time leads us to see how weak we are and how short our lives are. Our years pass quickly like a mist (James 4:14) or like a breath (Psalm 144:4). We’re as fleeting as grass that soon withers (1 Peter 1:24), here one day and gone the next.
Even as we suffer, we can ask our eternal God— the One who is above the time that He created— to help us to learn to make every day count for His glory.