“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” Psalm 90:12

Life can be lost to hurry. In our rush to tomorrow we miss the delights of today. And so the dance continues.

The number of days only ever diminishes, so it is wise to stop and take stock of how you are spending them. Are the moments dripping through your fingers in pursuit of something you already have? Or something that you think you want but on inspection could never satisfy your craving?

It is easy to live by default, reacting to circumstances as they rush by, rather than living by design, cultivating the life that you desire.

And by that I don’t mean the American dream. Whoever the ‘American’ is, he has much to answer for. The dream (or more precisely what the dream has mutated into) that has been foisted on unsuspecting generations drives the ambitions of millions over a precipice of endless discontent.

This is not the way of Jesus.

His purpose for you is richly furnished with provision, but is not driven by market forces. It is not moulded by passing fads and fashions.

God has great plans for your prosperity in every arena of life, and all that is necessary for fulfilment is already baked into your future.

Steps of humble obedience will get you there.

https://davidleemartin.com/becoming-stewards-of-heavens-storehouse/

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Well, today, I want to continue talking about productivity and maybe from a little bit of a different perspective potentially, but I actually want to talk about something that I’ve titled certainly in the blog post that I wrote today, Becoming stewards of Heaven’s Storehouse sounds very desirable, doesn’t it, to become a steward of heaven’s storehouse. There is a verse and I apologise. I’ve not kind of plugged it in here to share on the screen, but you can find it in Psalm 90:12 and it says Teach us to number add days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

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Psalm 90:12 in a time can be lost to hurry in a rush toward tomorrow. We miss the delights of today and the dance continues week after week, year after year. And being present is a bit of a kind of trendy thing nowadays with all the mindfulness teaching and things that are coming out. But I think there’s a lot of trees to be found in learning to be present and not being so intent on running into to tomorrow or some unknown future and forgetting that we actually carry a lot and that we bring a lot to the table today.

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You know, the number of days that we have just diminishes. It doesn’t there’s not going to be an increase. You’re not going to get a rebate. Yeah. You’re not going to get like like sometimes the taxman very rarely. But sometimes you might get a tax rebate where you actually get given back some of what you put in. But the truth is, you know, if you spend the day, that’s it. It’s gone. And so it behoves us really to really consider and think very carefully as the Psalmist is says, teach us to number our days and then apply wisdom to how we spend them.

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You know, it’s very easy sometimes. And this is kind of this is really something that you’ll have to think about yourself. But I’ve found myself doing this, so sometimes I’ve found myself in pursuit of things that I actually already have. Of, you know, I’m looking for significance when I already have it. I’m looking for for a sense of worth when I already have it, I’ve already that’s already been bestowed on you by the Holy Ghost significance and worth and just your place and purpose in the world has been given to you by the Holy Ghost.

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It’s not something that you have to be chasing after day after day. Sometimes I think we have an idea how these things should look or we’ve looked and we’ve seen how they look for someone else and think, well, mine doesn’t look like that. You know, my my way of being and my way of doing it, my way of impacting the world doesn’t look like that. Therefore, I must be doing something wrong and we just stay on that hamster wheel of discontent.

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When oftentimes, if we will just roll back far enough and kind of just put the brakes on and give real honest consideration to who we are as a person and what we bring to those around us, we can begin to realise that we actually carry a great deal more than we give ourselves credit for. There’s also the danger, I’m sure many of you have heard the story of the, you know, be careful what ladder you climb because you might get to the top and find that it’s leaning against the wrong wall.

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Be careful, be careful the things that you pursue, make sure that they are the things that you know, as the scriptures say, God gives us the desires of our heart, make sure that those are the things that God has planted in your heart to pursue and to run after. And if that’s the case, I encourage you to run after them with all of your passion, all of your heart, all of your energy, love God and love his purpose in your life with all your mind, all your strength, all your soul in every ounce of your being.

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But don’t be caught up in the pursuit of things that like even if you were to get them, would not satisfy whatever craving it is you’re looking to fulfil on the inside. You know, it’s easy, particularly as kind of the responsibilities of life stack up and the necessities of life are kind of coming at you like a daily regular flow. It’s very easy to end up just living by default, reacting to circumstances as they rush by us every day rather than living by design and cultivating that kind of life that we desire.

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When was the last time you sat down and thought, how do I actually want to live? What do I want to become? What kind of legacy do I want to leave? Where do I want to be five years from now? 10 years from now? And I’m very much a believer in living in the day and not kind of been so caught up in what might happen way down the road, but sometimes when we consider that broad a picture of who we are, who we are, but also who we are becoming and who we want to become, it can inform the activities and the priorities and preferences that we choose today in order to get there.

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You know, productivity isn’t just about kind of producing more and more and more and more of something that you don’t want. We want to be producing the the things that feed into our future and feed in to the purpose of God in our lives. You know, there’s this thing called the American Dream, I think the British dream is probably quite similar. To be honest, you know, and like whoever this American is, he had this dream, particularly what it’s kind of mutated into.

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It’s probably got a lot to answer for because this dream has been foisted on generations and driven like that and has driven ambitions, the ambitions of millions in elected to this precipice of discontent. Enough is never enough sometimes. I’m not saying that’s the case, OK, and I don’t want to kind of dismiss the idea and the ideal of freedom. Yeah, I am. I embrace that with all my heart. I believe that the the salvation that we have received through Christ was the restoration of our free will when no longer condemned men and women.

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We’re no longer on that death row just waiting ashore. And we’ve been pulled out that the law of sin and death has been torn away from us. And we’re now free agents. There’s a lot to be said for liberty, but when that liberty is used to just pursue more, bigger, faster, sometimes we can lose sight of what we’ve been made free for. And I don’t believe that necessarily that kind of rushed, overburdened, overtaxed, stressed out life is really the way of Jesus, his purpose is as much richer than that.

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And and his purpose will always be furnished with provision. And that provision is not necessarily going to be driven by market forces. It’s not going to be moulded by all of the passing fads and fashions he he planned for you before the world was even made. Yeah, he he purposing shaped you in your mother’s womb for your purpose. Before you even made your grand entrance into the world. And then the scriptures say, like he provides for the sparrows will not much more provide for you.

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So when we walk in purpose, when we align ourself and delight ourself in him, he gives us the desires of our heart and then helps us to work out and live out those God given God aligned desires and move in the direction of fulfilment, move in the direction that he is purposed and planned and walked before us so we can become the people that Jesus has designed us to be. And you are going to be a unique expression of his character.

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An absolutely unique, never to be repeated expression and facet of his wisdom, you bring something that no one ever in history has brought before. I believe that. And I think that, you know, that it’s three steps of real, just humble obedience that get us there. It’s not by, like, panicked efforts. There’s a pace to this purpose and provision that we’re talking about that is not not going to give you a heart attack. Yeah.

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He is not is not going to leave you dead by the side of the road in pursuit of it. Jesus is yoke is easy and his burden is light. He said he said this, Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all of these things that the world is seeking will be added to you and that’s really easy to read. But it’s not so easy to apply because that the cultural currents in our modern world, man, are like like strong undertones that drag us in a direction that is often contrary to peace.

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You know, I didn’t like that world and its demands, like pulling so hard to drag us away from this simplicity that Jesus has offered us. And from this security that Jesus has offered us to walk in, to walk in peace, to walk in, in purpose, to walk in pleasure. And by pleasure, I mean fulfilling his will, knowing who we are, enjoying the substance and the rewards of being in his will. Delighting in him.

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And walking out the desires that he has placed in our heart. Seek first the kingdom of God, you know, when we talk about seeking first, we’re talking about priority, we’re talking about and when we when we when we put something first, that thing that we put first determines what comes second, third, fourth, fifth. And getting them in the wrong order is an absolute recipe for confusion. You know, there are so many broken marriages, burned out bodies, kind of people walking in fear and insecurity, premature deaths.

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They all often testify to misplaced priority. You know, you, by your very nature, are designed to multiply. You are destined to bear fruit, but the greatest fruit is going to be born on the branches of those with the deepest roots. First things first, Jesus first, everything else follows. Jesus, first, everything else follows, he knows what is best for you, he knows how you’re going to get to your next milestone. He knows how you’re going to experience your next breakthrough.

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He has the ideas. He has the purpose. He has the people. And he can line all of those things up and you can become like a magnet for them. Because you are resonating with his purposes as you give yourself to seek his kingdom first and foremost. Let let, let God’s will be your priority, let his word be high, very high at the top of the pecking order of importance in your life. Let prayer take its proper place.

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Led prayer, not be kind of the thing that we tag on at the end of the day. Let us tag our day onto prayer. Let prayer be the launch pad that leads us into our priority. During the day. Let it be the foundation upon which we build. You know, I believe that I do good, I’m talking very much about productivity and and production due blic over this month and and giving thought to that myself. But I really believe that capacity, you know, when we’re talking about living to our full capacity, I believe that capacity begins with consecration.

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Jesus is the vine, you are the branch and divine that that divine life comes from him through you to others. Jeremiah has there’s a verse in Jeremiah that’s like frightening and so like beautifully pictured or horribly pictured, whichever way you want to look at it. Jeremiah to verse 13 says, For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

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That’s a terrible verse, man. That that is how easy it is to fail to seek God’s kingdom first and then think that we can produce by our own input and our own efforts and our own strength and our own energy. Now, you can produce like a certain amount. Absolutely. But you’ll be like this broken system. There’s only so much he can hold before you run dry, before you break down. How much better to be connected to a fountain of living waters?

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How much better to be connected to something that will never, ever run dry? That is endless, this endless supply of life, endless supply of ideas, endless supply of whatever is necessary for you to walk and fulfil purpose. Jesus, Jesus, first kingdom first. Delight yourself in God first. You know, we can come to these hewed out kind of systems and measure ourselves by all of the different world Lee. Measures, but really. You know, the way the world looks at things is going to be very is very different sometimes than the way the father looks at them and his estimate of what is awesome or successful, notable, remarkable is often very different than what the world considers to be remarkable.

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And I can promise you, you are and you can be remarkable when you when you display facets of his wisdom and his personality and whatever it is you’re doing, it doesn’t have to be some big thing. It doesn’t have to be some, like, famous or whatever. I mean, really, we were so swamped in this world of celebrity, so swamped in this world of kind of inflated egos and personalities that we failed to recognise our own awesome.

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We failed to recognise our own greatness. We fail to recognise just how much worth and how much value we can bring to the table for the people that God has called us to minister to, to reach, to impact, to build and to help. Some of the things that that really mark a fruitful life. And fruitfulness in productivity, I think, could be kind of very much seen as synonyms, a fruitful life doesn’t necessarily isn’t necessarily counted in dollars.

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A fruitful life is often countered with things that are priceless, things that cannot be quantified in that way, can’t be just scrawled on a spreadsheet and, you know, do a sum of. You are far, far more than your bottom line and your net worth, your your your personal worth cannot be determined just by your net worth. It’s it’s just does not work like that. Jesus didn’t die for your bank account. Jesus died for you. He saw the field, took everything you had and sold everything so he could buy the field and come and and obtain.

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So you could come and ransom you. For himself. And so as we seek to be more productive and useful to others through our service, however, that looks for you. Just be sure to keep first things first, keep drawing your sustenance from the source and number your days not in dollars, but in devotion. So abundantly to the spirit and let the fruit of your outer life be the result and the overflow of your inner life. And I believe that it is it’s in this way.

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That we become earthly stewards of heaven storehouses. As we engage in deeper and deeper connexion and relationship with him, we can learn to we can he can entrust us with more. That’s all I’m saying. So I got God bless you, have a great day. I love you heaps, but Jesus loves you more. God bless. Well, thanks for listening, hopefully. It’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com.

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Have a great day.