Fulfilling Your Days

“Honour your father and mother.” (Ephesians 6:2) This commandment is at the heart of fulfilling your days quantitatively. In other words, if you want to live long, honour your mother and father. It’s the first commandment with promise. However, the qualitative dimension of fulfilling your days is much bigger than the quantitative dimension. Our foundational scripture for understanding fulfilling your days qualitatively is found in 2 Samuel 7:12: “And WHEN YOUR DAYS ARE FULFILLED and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up after you your offspring who shall be born to you, and I will establish his kingdom.” (2 Samuel 7:12) Here God was making a promise to David through Prophet Nathan. At the time God made this promise to David, he had established his kingdom despite the battles along the way. (1 Chronicles 18) Israel was surrounded by many enemies – the Philistines, the Moabites, the Arameans of Damascus, among others.

Now that the nation of Israel was secured from its enemies, David built himself a beautiful house of cedar. (1 Chronicles 17:1) So here was David, a man who was a nobody, now living in a big house and reigning as king. It’s not where you start from that matters in life, it’s the God you have. God can take you to any height. Your point of origin is not the determinant of your destiny, God is. Look at what God says to us in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11) God has a strategic plan and blueprint design for your life, that’s why he spoke about an expected end. David had no experience in statecraft. He was a poem-writing, rap-artiste shepherd boy with no qualifications to be king. The previous king, Saul, had living descendants with more claim to the throne. But God broke protocol to make David king. Sometimes our path to the top is blocked by existing order and established protocol. And too often we imagine that protocols and orders cannot be changed. And so we give up and pursue lesser visions. Never forget you’re dealing with an Almighty God who will bring his purpose to pass in your life regardless of protocol. Stop worrying about HOW God is going to accomplish what he promised you. When God promises you something, your job is to believe his word. Concern yourself with the “what,” not the “how.” The “what” belongs to you, the “how” belongs to God. Stop praying to God for indirect means. If you want a car ask God for a car directly. Don’t ask God for increase in salary so you save to buy a car over the next two years. Ask for the car directly. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

The conversation between David and Prophet Nathan in 1 Chronicles 17 holds a vital secret for those seeking God’s blessing. David said to Prophet Nathan, “I live in a beautiful cedar palace, but the ark of God is out there in a tent!” David wanted to build a house for God, but God told him not to bother. It was David’s loving concern for the affairs of God that attracted incredible promises from God. God promised David fame, peace, lineage, succession and establishment. (1 Chronicles 17) God said: “I will make your name [David] as famous as anyone who has ever lived on earth”. When we name our children David, we’re helping to fulfil God’s promise of legendary fame to David. If you want God to establish you, and give you peace from your foes, be lovingly concerned about his business. If you want to God to guarantee your lineage and give you a name, be lovingly concerned about God’s business. Biblically, fulfilling your days on earth is about peace, legacy, repute, success and blessings. Be lovingly concerned for the things of God and God will bless you in return.

God desires to establish you. (1 Peter 5:10) “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace [who imparts His blessing and favour] who called you to His own eternal glory in Christ, will Himself complete, confirm strengthen, and establish you [making you what you ought to be].” (1 Peter 5:10 AMP) David did a comparative analysis of his personal status and that of the symbol of God’s presence, the Ark of the Covenant. How could the ark of God dwell in a tent and he [David] live in a house of cedar? That was a Davidic anomaly. A Davidic anomaly juxtaposes what we do for us with what we do for God; according to the capacities He has given us. Those who spot “Davidic anomalies” and seek to correct them are always blessed of God. Many times it’s not the act that impresses God but the motivation of our hearts. God looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) God used the motivation of David’s heart as the basis of righteous determination for assignment of blessings. No matter the level we are, we can do something for God. What do you want to do for God? What Davidic anomalies can you identify and correct? God never owes anyone. And God will bless you more than you can ever bless him. God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20)

God doesn’t need anything from us. He’s self-sustaining and self-existent. It’s interesting that God sent Prophet Nathan to David referring to himself as “the Lord of Heaven’s armies”. (2 Samuel 7:8) Why did God introduce himself as a military commander to David? God wanted to reiterate that it was by His power and might that David became king and defeated his enemies. The same God who wrought victories for David is the same God behind the promises to us in Hebrews 13:5. Here’s God’s promise to you: “I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.” (Hebrews 13:5) God guaranteed his promise in 2 Sam 7 to David by attaching our Lord Jesus Christ to the lineage of David. (Mattew 1:1) Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise to David of an eternal kingdom. (Matthew 1:1) The blind man who cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” therefore had a revelation of 2 Samuel 7:16. (Luke 18:38)

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If you’ll like to give your life to Christ please pray this prayer: “Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I know that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for me and that you raised him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Christ is Lord and I receive him as my Lord and my Saviour. I am now born again. Amen.”