WHEN “THY WILL BE DONE” COSTS YOU SOMETHING

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12

This morning at Rock Island Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Mac White stood in for Pastor Barry Boggs and gave us far more than a sermon. He opened his heart before us and asked us to consider the days ahead. What will tomorrow bring? How would we live if we knew what was waiting for us? How do we prepare for a future that only God can see? Scripture reminds us that our lives are “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). We fill our calendars, make our plans and often live as though tomorrow has already been promised to us, but life can change in a single moment and leave us standing before God with nothing certain except His presence.

That is why Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Mac explained that numbering our days means far more than counting how many we have lived or wondering how many remain. It means asking God to prepare our hearts, order our steps and teach us to live every day according to His will. God alone knows the number of our days, but we are responsible for how faithfully we use the day He has placed before us. True wisdom is not measured by degrees, titles or years spent in a classroom. Mac spoke of people with very little formal education who were among the wisest he had ever known because they understood how to love others, care for people and walk humbly with the Lord. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Wisdom does not begin when we finally have all the answers. It begins when we recognize that God does.

Throughout Scripture, God’s people faced days they could not understand and futures they could not control. In the wilderness, God sent manna from heaven, enough for each day. When Elijah was exhausted and discouraged, God provided food, rest and strength. When a little boy offered Jesus the small meal he carried, Christ multiplied it until thousands were fed. God did not always reveal the entire road ahead or explain how everything would end. He simply provided what His children needed for the next step. Perhaps that is part of numbering our days too. We stop demanding strength for a tomorrow that has not yet arrived and begin trusting God for the grace needed today.

Then Mac’s message became deeply personal. His beloved wife is undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia as doctors work to prepare her body for a transplant. He spoke about praying for her healing and expressed gratitude for the doctors, nurses, modern medicine and treatments God may use to bring that healing. Then he spoke about the prayer that becomes almost unbearable when the person you love is suffering: “Father, Thy will be done.”

There are times when those words come easily because very little is being asked of us. Then there are times when saying them feels as though we are placing our entire heart upon the altar. Mac loves his wife so deeply that he would take her place if he could. He would carry the illness, endure the treatments and bear every painful burden for her, but he cannot walk this road in her place. He can only walk beside her, pray for her, love her through every uncertain day and entrust the woman who means so much to him into the hands of God.

“I’m learning,” he told us, and I believe those may have been the most powerful words spoken all morning. Mac did not stand before us pretending that faith removes fear, makes suffering painless or provides an easy answer for every question. He stood before us as a husband whose heart is breaking, still learning day by day how to surrender the person most precious to him to the Lord. That is not weak faith. That is faith being tested in the fire, when trusting God is no longer a comfortable idea but a choice that costs you something.

In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Surrender does not mean pretending we do not care what happens. It means caring so deeply that it hurts, asking God boldly for the miracle we desperately desire and still trusting His heart when we cannot understand His plan. Faith does not forbid us from pleading for healing. Faith brings those pleas before the One who holds life in His hands, while admitting that His wisdom reaches far beyond everything we can presently see.

Mac also spoke honestly about worry and how easily it can consume the space where prayer and trust should live. Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34). That does not mean our burdens are small or our fears are foolish. It means we were never created to carry tomorrow before it arrives. God invites us to bring Him every fear, every desperate request and every question we cannot answer. “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). When sorrow leaves us unable to form the words, “the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8:26). Even when our prayers are little more than tears, heaven understands them.

Numbering our days is not merely preparing to die. It is learning how to live faithfully while we are still here. It is choosing prayer when worry begins to take hold, service when selfishness would be easier, love when another person desperately needs to see Christ in us and trust when the road ahead has disappeared into darkness. We are not here simply to watch the days pass. We belong to the Lord, and every day He gives us is another opportunity to serve Him, love one another and make His goodness known.

Mac closed by praying that wherever we go and whatever we face this week, our words will reflect the love and respect of Jesus Christ. What a powerful reminder that our witness is not only found in what we say when life is comfortable. Sometimes our clearest testimony rises from the deepest place of sorrow, when our hearts are breaking and we still declare, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

Please pray fervently for Mac and his precious wife. Pray that God will touch her body and bring complete healing, that the chemotherapy will accomplish what it must, that her body will be prepared for the transplant and that every doctor and nurse caring for her will be guided with wisdom. Pray for strength when they are exhausted, peace when fear comes near and enough faith for the moments when they cannot see beyond the next step. Pray especially for Mac, the husband standing faithfully beside the woman he loves, carrying a burden he would give anything to take from her.

Lord, teach us to number our days. Teach us to trust You when tomorrow frightens us. Give us our daily bread, our daily strength and our daily portion of grace. When we cannot understand Your plan, help us rest in Your character. When our hearts are breaking, hold us together. When the words “Thy will be done” feel almost impossible to say, give us the faith to whisper them, and through every unknown day ahead, remind us that we never walk alone. 🤍🕊️