Psalm 102:11–12: “My days are like a shadow that lengthens, / And I wither away like grass. / But You, O LORD, shall endure forever, / And the remembrance of Your name to all generations.”

April 17th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

In an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, Calvin says to Hobbes, “God put me on earth to accomplish certain things. Right now, I’m so far behind, I’ll never die.” It would be nice if that was true, but our lives are passing swiftly by, regardless of whether or not we are accomplishing the things God has for us. David wanted to keep on the path to eternal life so he considered his own mortality, comparing it to the shadows that lengthen as the sun goes down at the end of the day.

It is good to remind ourselves that we need to constantly keep our guard up against small sins that creep into our lives. Small choices often have large consequences. There is a story from the 90s that reminds us of this truth. For 8 years, Sally had been the Romero family pet. When they got her, she was only a foot long. But she grew and eventually reached 11.5-feet long and weighed 80 pounds. Then, on July 20, 1993, Sally, who was a Burmese python, turned on 15-year-old Derek, strangling the teenager until he died of suffocation. The Associated Press Online (7/22/93) quoted the police as saying that the snake was “quite aggressive, hissing, and reacting” when they arrived to investigate. How easy it is for sins, which begin as small accommodations in our lives, to quickly grow into a deadly lifestyle.

“LORD, keep us free from the entanglements of the enemy this day, in Jesus’ name.”