#freshmanna #encouragement #lifeprecious #aotniel Today's Fresh Manna: Recognizing Our Frailty Psalm 39 ****** How rare it is for us to stop and appreciate the brevity of our lives! We assume that things will continue the way we they are day in and day out. The people in the recently ill-fated Air India Flight 171 thought and planned for good tme with their families, relatives or professions. It was like any other flights that leave the airport daily. We simply assume that tomorrow will be like today and today will be like yesterday without thought about the brevity of life and that our time is truly a vapor. David prays that he understand this truth more fully in verse 4. We need to understand that how fleeting our lives are. We need to understand the measure of our days to be short. We need to appreciate the day and not assume tomorrow is available to us. We leave so much unsaid and undone. How often we see people who have lost loved ones wishing they had another few hours to say or do some final things. They never imagined they would not have time to offer those final important words. They assumed tomorrow would come. We must seize each day that is given to us. Paul said as much to us in Ephesians 5:16, telling us to “redeem the time, because the days are evil” (NKJV). Other translations help us understand this phrase “redeem the time” by saying, “making the most of every opportunity” (NIV) and “making the best use of the time” (ESV). The pursuit of the things in the world is vanity. We need to pursue the things that are most important: God and our relationships with family and believers. REFLECTIONS IN PRAYER --- My hope is in the Lord. Guide me my Lord to set a guard on my mouth; but not to muzzle it to the point of withholding good that would praise you, especially before those yet dead in their sin. When I feel any flicker of inner fire for you, help me Lord to refrain from quenching your Spirit within me. Remind me Lord that my days are as short as just a hand-breadth, or like a morning vapor gone before mid-day. A life that is filled with the most prized worldly treasures is a shadow, and even reaching the highest pinnacle of achievement among men is emptiness before You. All vestiges of wealth and fame are undeniably left with others when our spirit departs the body, and it returns to dust. And now Lord, do I really wait for You? Yes! My hope can be placed firmly, in none other than You, in Jesus' Name. Amen. Be challenged ~ A Othniel (June 15, 2025)