Read Proverbs 3:7 

What often looks as if it is here to stay...can be frighteningly temporary. 

When God says, "That's it; that's curtains," it's only a matter of time. It is the perspective in all this that holds us together. Our God is in complete control. He lets nothing out of His grip.

Yet our Lord is not some tyrannical god who stomps across heaven like the giant in Jack in the Beanstalk, swinging a club and waiting to give us a smashing blow to the head. 

No. Rather, it is as if He says to us, "You're Mine, and I want you to walk in step with Me. I've arranged a plan so that walking with Me will result in a righteous lifestyle. If you make a decision not to walk with Me, I've also arranged consequences that will happen and you must live with them."

Yes, life is short. Yes, our sins are obvious.... But instead of thinking of these days as just about as futile as emptying wastebaskets, see the significance of them in light of God's plan.

He has a way of balancing out the good with the bad.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom for the Way (Nashville: J. Countryman, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.