Make Your Life Count (1 Samuel 31:6)

In this episode of Pray the Word on 1 Samuel 31:6, David Platt urges us to live today in light of what matters for eternity.

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Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical dot net. First Samuel chapter thirty one verse six. Thus Saul died and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men on the same day together. What a verse and in a sense a very depressing verse to see Saul who had so much potential and God granted so much grace to end his life in such disgrace, having lived and led God's people with pride and ultimately in disobedience to God. And now in first Samuel chapter thirty one, he dies. And I read this verse I think about two particular funerals that I've been to recently, one for my mentor and spiritual father in ministry in so many ways, Jim Shattox, and then more recently my uncle, Uncle John, and both of them died in a way that is totally different than what we read about here with Saul in 1 Samuel 31. Both of these men died faithfully following Jesus. And while there is without question grief in their death, there is also joy and fulfillment and contentment. I saw both of these men in the days before they went to be with the Lord, and they were totally trusting in Jesus, and they were surrounded by people who were trusting in Jesus, family and friends as a result of their lives. And I have thought a lot about Ecclesiastes and how Ecclesiastes really points us to the brevity of life and almost beckons us to fast forward to the day when each of us are going to die. So just hang with me. This may feel depressing for a moment, but I think this is so important, and scripture attests to this. It is good for us to think about the number of our days. Psalm chapter 90 makes this very clear that it's wise to realize we only have a short number of days here in this world, and none of us is guaranteed tomorrow. So jump to the end of your life for a moment. And even if you're a child or a teenager student, I know this seems like a stretch, but you're not guaranteed tomorrow either. So jump to wherever your coffin is for a moment and just think for a moment. What do I want to be true of me on that day? And then back up and live today so that that will be true of you on that day. Like live for what is gonna matter most on that day, and not just on that day for you, but in the days beyond for the people around you, and in the days beyond for you in another world. This is a wise way to live. And so let's pray, God help us to live today with that day in mind, with the day of our death in mind, to live for what is going to matter most on that day, to love people around us today in view of that day, to live today for what's going to matter most on that day and beyond for those whose lives we've influenced and for our lives in a whole nother world. Oh God, please deliver us today from the trivial and the temporary and for from living for what doesn't matter on that day and forever. Help us to live today for what is going to matter forever. God help us to live today like we could meet you at any moment. Help us to live faithfully with you, to seek you with all our heart, to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as ourselves, to follow you, Jesus, and to make you known right where we live and around the world in whatever way you call us to. God help us to live for what will matter forever. And oh God, we we pray this in light of the fact that there are people around us today who need Jesus. So we pray you'd help us to be urgent and bold in sharing the gospel today and in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. God, for the Shua Arab people of Chad and Nigeria and Cameroon, over four million of them who are not guaranteed tomorrow either, and they've never heard the good news of your love for them in Jesus. God, we pray, help us to share and spread the gospel to them with urgency to use our lives and our resources at your church to get the gospel to all the peoples of the world with urgency, knowing they're not guaranteed tomorrow either. God help us to live today in light of the urgency of eternity and the reality that unless you return, Lord Jesus, death is coming for us at any point. And we pray that you would help us to live for what will matter most on that day. We pray all this according to your word in 1 Samuel chapter 31, verse 6, in Jesus' name, in the name of the one who has conquered death, so that we can actually look forward to that day because we know that to live is Christ and to die is gain. We pray all this in his name. Amen.