Playing 'The Numbers' Game!
July 16, 2001

Our Thoughts:

Counters, counters, counters! As a webmaster, I would love to say I don't watch them, but it would be very dishonest. I would love to say that they don't bother me, when they are low, but that wouldn't be the truth! My numbers for my website have plummeted in the past couple months, to the point, it does bother me tremendously. I watch the Christian counter site, and see those less-known sites climb to 'new heights', above the old and trusted ones, and wonder what's happening. I put out my weekly newsletter, and seem to get more and more people unsubscribing, right after it's delivered by email. Again, it's numbers. Numbers seem to be cropping up everywhere, in everything, and weighing more heavily on our minds these days - especially, if you are a serious web site owner.

Numbers may not mean much to some, but, to those of us that are advancing in years, they mean lots. Each day that goes by, means that we are one day older, getting closer to old age, or the 'checking out' point.

Each of us learned early how to count on our fingers. We quickly learned our age, as we advanced in childhood; after all, we didn't want someone to think we weren't smart. We learned to count to ten easily, and even backwards, with the Ten Little Indians poem. If counting very high was a problem, you quickly learned to use your fingers, your toes, or anything else that was handy!

Numbers are significant throughout the Bible. Three is the number of diety - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. [ I John 5:7 ] Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and nights. [Matt.12:40] And, I'm sure that Jonah was happy that it was only three days, but he learned a lesson, I'm sure. And, this makes me wonder: "Is GOD trying to teach us a lesson?"

Scripture speaks of the Lord knowing the number of hairs on your head.[ Matt.10:30 ] God made it to rain forty days and forty nights, causing the flood on the earth. Was Noah sitting around worrying, because he wondered if God was going to leave them in that ARK one day more?

Moses went up to the mount of God and was under the cloud forty days and nights. He wrote the words of the covenant, the ten commandments, on tablets. Jesus was in the wilderness, tempted of satan, forty days. The walls of Jericho fell, after they were marched around seven days. Numbers, numbers, numbers!

No matter where the numbers come from, they are important. But, we shouldn't be worrying, simply because they aren't matching up to our expectations. Perhaps God has a plan for all the numbers - even the small amount appearing on those counters, or those few subscriptions to the newsletters. He did say that HIS WORD would not come back void. Each time we 'send' out His Word, it works, regardless of who decides not to return to the sites, or ones unsubscribing to our newsletters. We need to do what we do for GOD with love, for no one fails to fulfill His will. He gave us the promises, and He will fulfill them.

God's Thoughts: