How long? When we are going through anything this question may be on our mind. Will the situation or event drag on? Will there be a quick end? Will I ever stop feeling a certain way? How long?

When I was a kid, I asked this question a lot. How long until Christmas, my birthday, until supper, or the most stated question was, “Are we there yet?” on trips.

We want to know how long. (I still do.)

Interesting to me is that 18 times the phrase is found in the book of Psalms. By far the most in any book of the Bible. It is found in other places as well. Most often the question was asked of God. In other places God would query how long disobedience would continue.

Perhaps, we should ask ourselves the same type of question as we do some self-examination. How long has it been since I prayed? How long since I reached out to encourage a brother or sister? How long has it been since I invited someone to services? How long since I last spoke to someone about the church or Jesus? You may be thinking, “How long is this list of how long questions going to be?” The list could definitely keep going.

Many of us desire to know when something will end or sometimes when it will begin. The real question we should concern ourselves with is how we are spending our time here. How long do we have? Only God knows for sure.

May we all start looking to fill our time, however long we have, with faithful obedient service to the onewho will end all the ‘how longs’ one day.