The Unfolding of Your Life
…all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:16
In this text, the psalmist makes an amazing observation about the days of our lives. That, in God’s foreknowledge, all of them were recorded in God’s book before any of them came to pass.
The Hebrew word for “book” here is sefer. It refers to a scroll, a rolled parchment. Thus, God’s book is the Scroll of Days. It holds the will of God and the plans of God.
You and I are part of that will and figure into those plans. All the days ordained for us were written in the Scroll of Days before one of them came to be.
What’s important to understand is how a scroll works. You can only see what is inside as it unrolls.
There’s a significant point to be made here: You can only see God’s plans for your life as they unfold…as the scroll unrolls.
You can only see God’s plans for your life as they unfold…as the Scroll of Days unrolls.
One Day at a Time
Unlike the books of today that we’re familiar with, you can’t skip ahead to a future section. Everything has to unroll in its order – one day at a time.
So it is with your life. You can never be shown all that lies ahead of you. And while it can be frustrating to live with the questions that accompany this mystery, it is also a blessing in disguise.
For one thing, you wouldn’t understand the future because you hadn’t experienced the context. For another thing, you wouldn’t be able to deal with the future because you hadn’t been prepared. Everything must unfold one day at a time.
What lies ahead in the Scroll of Days has already been written. So too God’s plans for your life are already written. Among them, according to the Apostle Paul, are the “good works He (God) has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). They are already written in the book but must unfold in their time.
When it comes to knowing God’s plan for your life, you don’t get to see all that lies ahead, that which hasn’t been revealed. But the part you do see in the present foreshadows what lies ahead and leads directly to what is yet to be revealed.
When it comes to knowing God’s plan for your life, you don’t get to see all that lies ahead. But the part you do see in the present foreshadows what lies ahead and leads directly to what is yet to be revealed.
The key, therefore, is to live in the present moment of your life in the fullness of God’s will. Do what you can for His glory today, knowing that it is connected to what you will be able to do for His glory tomorrow.
Your destiny is waiting to be revealed…in the unrolled scroll of your days.
PRAYER
Lord, I thrill at the thought that my life has meaning and purpose. And that each day allows me to not only experience that but also prepare me for even greater opportunities to glorify You. Help me to handle the challenges that come with the daily walk of faith, patiently enduring the mystery and even the pain, knowing that everything in the scroll is connected.
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