“…For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).
Old and New Testament writers alike seek to impress upon their readers the stubborn truth that life on this earth is brief. Job exclaims that his life is a breath (Job 7:7). It is a few days and full of trouble; you bloom like a flower and then quickly fade away. Like a shadow on a sunny day, your life rapidly races from sunrise to sunset (Job 14:2).
David writes: “As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (Psalm 103:15-16).
“Well, there’s always tomorrow” is fiction, not fact. Some day, you will have no more tomorrows on earth. That day in human history may be today for any of us. Though the calendar will have more days in the month, more months in the year, and more years after that, you will not. Your life—which is but a vapor—will be over.
Your need to live wisely, purposefully, and obediently has never been more pressing than it is today.
