WHAT IS YOUR LIFE?
by William MacDonald, from his book ONE DAY AT A TIME, the daily reading for October 1st “For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” ( James 4:14 ) The insistent voice of the Holy Spirit reminds mortal man frequently in the Scriptures of the brevity of his life. By the repeated use of similes, the Spirit of the Lord impresses on us that our days are limited and passing swiftly. For instance, He likens life to a weaver’s shuttle ( Job 7:6 ), the device that darts back and forth in the loom almost faster than the eye can follow. Job speaks of life as wind ( Job 7:7 ), here one minute and gone the next, never to return. The psalmist echoes the sentiment, speaking of “a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again” ( Psa. 78:39 ). Bildad unnecessarily reminds Job that “our days on earth are a shadow” ( Job 8:9 ), a picture that is repeated in Psalm 102:11 , “My days are like a shadow that declineth.” ...