Last Month Adjustments

Written by John Grant

What changes would you make in your lifestyle if you had only 30 days to live? Would you like someone to pray for you?

The last minute of a basketball game can seem like an eternity, as each team calls time outs to make last second adjustments. Everyone knows that the end of the game is near and sometimes that one last second play is the difference between winning and losing.

Life is like that, only we usually don’t have a time certain clock, but we know that this game of life will end someday and the question is what last adjustments would we make if we knew that our mortal end was near.

Our church has been working through an “all church book.” It has been preached from the pulpit, studied in Bible fellowship classes and hopefully been read by every member of the church. The title is One Month to Live.

Recently, as I was on day 24, I took it with me to read while waiting for my annual stress test. Needless to say, a book with a title like that in a cardiologist’s waiting room can get more than a casual glance or comment. Maybe people were thinking that I was worse off than I looked.

When I went into the exam room and placed the book on a table, the young lady prepping me said, “I thought you were in here for a routine test.” I explained the book and used it to share the Gospel with her.

But, what if you had just thirty days to live, what would you do different? How would your priorities change? Reading this book gave me a lot to think about and more importantly gave me scripture that paints a roadmap of how we as Christians should live our lives, not just in the last days, but throughout life’s journey.

We should live passionately, completely, humbly and boldly. Death is a universal experience of life. As a lawyer, I have had many clients come into my office to write a will and say, “if I die,” to which I respond that it’s not “if” but when. Everyone dies, but not everyone really lives, at least not in the way God created us to live.

The Bible tells us to live our lives in such a way that when the final months or days appear over the horizon, we would have no adjustments to make, but just continue living the way we have been all along. If there is something in your life that does not reflect a Biblical lifestyle? Change now and don’t wait until the game is almost over. ( a thought on life from John Grant )

Questions: Is there is something in your life that does not reflect a Biblical lifestyle? What will be your first step to make a change?

About the Author John Grant

Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, Stay Near to God, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog

Tags: adjustments, basketball, church, clients, death, john grant, last days, losing, priorities, winning

6 Responses to “Last Month Adjustments”

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J F BROYLES says:

July 27, 2009 at 12:06 pm

Autumn,

I am praying for you and trusting that you will know God’s healing touch in your life.

JF
Autumn says:

July 27, 2009 at 9:49 am

JF, That is so beautiful. What a testimony to your dad’s faith.

My dad sounds a lot like yours. He was dying of cancer, in and out of comas. One night he asked us all to gather around him and sing “Amazing Grace” for him. The hospice nurse had told us to first go tell him we loved him and it was okay to go on home. While singing, he slipped into his final coma with a huge, peaceful smile. That was 16 years ago this September and I remember it as it was yesterday. It was a long time after that before I could get through that song without major tears. God is awesome, though, and I know I will be with my parents and my brother again one day. I am the last one but I do believe God will continue healing my kidneys or will make a transplant possible. I believe it with all my heart. I stand on His word.

Thanks for sharing everything all. It is so uplifting to read the posts.
J F BROYLES says:

July 27, 2009 at 9:24 am

I remember so vividly in July 2005 when my Dad was told he had 3 weeks to live. He went to heaven on 08-08-05, exactly three weeks to the day. He lived his entire life in a way that was honoring to God, even on his deathbed. Daddy was a quiet, gentle man not given to much physical expression in worship; but, on the day he died he sat up in bed, raised both hands to God and strongly said “Holy Spirit” aloud. I know he was in God’s special care. May this message encourage someone else in a way that only God knows will help someone else.
kanj says:

July 26, 2009 at 12:41 pm

John, thank you for the devotional.
Autumn, as it reads in Psalm 31:24, ”Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All who hope in the Lord.”
Patience is the virtue I’m having a hard time feeling. I try to nurture it always and just when I think I have made progress, im-patience creeps around again. It’s not a very nice Christian trait—-’impatience’!
To make change for me takes daily discipline, every waking hour of it. Think before speaking. Firstly though I must acknowledge my sin of impatience in prayer and ask for forgiveness.
sharon b says:

July 26, 2009 at 12:31 pm

autunm you are in my prayers and i know The Lord is with you
Autumn says:

July 26, 2009 at 9:07 am

I have stage 5 of ESRD and am on dialysis. I could any day be near the end of my life. I trust God to keep me healthy, for a transplant if it is His will. We are getting ready to study this and I had wanted to purchase the book and cds but with mounting medical expenses do not have the funds. I am trying to live my life now having been told that dialysis is the only thing keeping me alive. Having seen a dear friend at the center die recently, unexpectedly, it hit home. God is good and I want to leave a legacy of His love in my life so that my daughter will come to rededicate her life to the Lord. Her oldest daughter loves the Lord and is trying to teach her little sister about Him. Mommy refuses to go to church. So that is my priority but I can’t talk or share. I just have to “be” and by example hope that others will see the love I have and how God is working in my life.

I do know that many have mentioned a new “glow” to me that they never saw before. That opens up the opportunity to tell them God is working in my life and is in control of my body that Jesus bore my sickness and carried my pain.

May He bless you all.