February 5

Feb 5 - Today from Proverbs 5 we look at verses 11 & 12
"At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. You will say, "How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!"

I turn 60 this year. I hope that it's not nearing the end of my mortal life, but I am soberly aware that I am closer to the end than the beginning. I am thankful that I came to know the Lord when I was 30. Don't get me wrong. I knew about the Lord all my life. My parents saw to it that I was raised in church and we had family devotions around out supper table almost every evening while growing up. I am thankful for that foundation. I knew ‘God was everywhere' and I knew ‘Jesus died on a cross for my sins’. But it wasn't until I was 30 years old where the message was mixed with faith and I was overwhelmed with the fact that God was near, and Jesus died for ME! I turned my life over to Him and became His disciple. Not perfect. But surely, for the first time in this life, being perfected. His Word became my passion because I discovered it was a 'love letter' and not His 'list of rules' for being a good Christian. Is there a difference? Oh yes, there certainly is.
When I came into a relationship with my heavenly Father through Christ Jesus, my entire perspective changed. The Word of God became precious to me. In it were the words of life - even the corrective words. I also came to another realization. Although I was not able to articulate it at the time, I didn't want my life to be spent. Listen to some dictionary definitions of the verb 'spend': 1. To use up, expend. 2. To wear out, exhaust. 3. To waste or squander. To a self-serving person that's exactly what life is for. "I've got about 80 years, I'm going to make the most of them as I use them up." I am ashamed to admit it, but that would probably summarize the first 30 years of my life. After I met Jesus and became His disciple, I wanted to 'invest' my life - for Him. To spend is to exhaust. To invest is to increase. That's what Jesus did on the cross. He invested Himself in me. Now I want to invest myself in Him. Investment doesn't always have to be monumental. For instance, we keep the church open from 7:00 to 8:00 PM here every Tuesday evening for corporate prayer. We don't spend our time there on Tuesday evenings - we invest it. We are praying for the entrance and rule of God's Kingdom in the affairs of this world.
When I get to the end of my life I don't want to hand Him only the ‘talent’ He entrusted to me. I want to hand it to Him with an increase. He expects that as well (Matt. 25:27). After all, He invested far more in me that I can ever comprehend. So, we are in agreement and He is the Teacher. The path He chose for me is a path of investment. It is also a path of discipline. If I agree that I would like my life to count for Him, but am unwilling to invest it in others, there will be no return. As one nears the end of this mortal life and sees that he leaves nothing behind which will serve to further God's purposes, one becomes soberly aware that his life was indeed spent. Regrets seldom come in the times of self-serving pleasure. Regrets come at the end, when pleasure is spent and there is absolutely no return. Regrets of this magnitude come too late. Pleasure lives for the moment. Wisdom always looks to the end.