Do you like to plan ahead? I do. I like to know exactly what’s going to happen. I like to plan every detail so that I’m not caught off guard, or awkward, or unprepared. In fact, one of my sisters used to give me a hard time because I would pick out what I would wear for traveling – weeks or even months before the trip. If there’s no information on what is going to be happening, I tend to pull from past experiences and try to put together some sort of expectation that I can plan for. All this planning and trying to be prepared is overwhelming and generally leads to stress and anxiety. And constantly looking at the past is no better. When we back over what we have done there is plenty of room for regrets, shame, and pain over things we can do nothing about. I’m not saying we should never look ahead or seek to learn from the past. But our focus should be on today. And no, this is not some sort of “let’s throw a party like there’s no tomorrow,” endorsement. Rather, this is a call to look at what the Bible says our attitude should be towards our time here on earth.
The first “now” or “today” response I’d like to share is found in 2 Corinthians 6:2. “For he [God] saith, I have heard thee in the time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” God calls all men to leave their futile attempts to live their best life (whether that be ‘bettering themselves’ or living for all the pleasure they can get in this life) and accept from Him the gift of eternal life, abundant life by believing in Jesus, God the Son, who died to pay the death penalty for our sin, and rose again so that we can be counted just before God the Father, who judges every person. There is no other way to be saved from the death and destruction that sin causes or to be pleasing before God. Our response to this should be urgent, should be decided today. Why? Because our life is like steam: here one moment and gone the next. You and I are not guaranteed tomorrow, or even all of today. Dear friend, God is calling you. Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart in unbelief, departing from the living God (Hebrews 3:7,12).
When you accept God’s gift of eternal life, you become a child of God. And as such, you have a relationship with Him. There are a couple passages about “today” I want to share that relate directly to this relationship. The first is found in Matthew 6. Jesus is teaching His followers how to pray, and this is part of it. “Our Father . . . give us this day our daily bread.” So often we want to be self-sufficient. We resent the idea of living in dependence on someone else, even if that is God. But in Proverbs 30, we find a prayer that expounds a bit on this ‘daily bread’ mentality. Agur (the author of the chapter) requests, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain” (Proverbs 30:8-9). Back in Matthew, in the same chapter that Jesus teaches His followers to pray, He also tells them that the Father knows exactly what we need and we have no cause for worry for the same God who provided food for all the birds, and dresses the smallest flowers is the same God who cares for our needs, and He loves us much more than the birds or flowers.
The second passage on ‘today’ as it relates to our relationship as children of God that I’ll share in this blog is found in James 4. “Go to now, ye that day, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” God has a plan for our lives, and it’s not necessarily the one we have. A little over a year ago, I began to learn this lesson in a very personal way. I was half-way through my first semester as a college sophomore, part of an accelerated learning group, set to graduate with my bachelor’s degree May of 2021 and my master’s the following year. And then one day, those plans began tumbling down. My health took a sudden turn, and my energy was gone. Making it to classes became a challenge, and there were days that I had to miss a class because I was too exhausted to get there. There were tests I had to make up because I had to be walked back to my dorm, too weak and mentally checked out to get there by myself, minutes before I was supposed to begin the test. Extracurricular activities, limited before due to study and work, were cut to basically nothing because I just could not do it. My focus was suddenly narrowed to ‘this day’ or sometimes, ‘this class,’ or ‘this job.’ And I was honestly too exhausted to care. I returned home and my health improved somewhat, and God provided an amazing job that I enjoy. But this past summer, plans took another change. My field of work expanded, and the days were no longer cookie-cutter, I-know-what-to-expect-today days. It was a bit difficult for me, but the real chafing began when, as harvest began to wind down, I didn’t know whether I would be working the next day until the evening before. I didn’t like my focus being restricted to “today.” And so I told God all about how I didn’t understand, and why did it have to be this way, and it would be easier if (. . .). His response? “Child, I want to lead you day by day.” No, the inward chafing didn’t magically disappear. But I began to learn to look to God each day for what He had for me, just as I had to check with my boss as to whether I was working the next day. And I am beginning to see that God’s plan is so much bigger than mine ever was. Mine was filled with gaps, unknowns. And as I walk this path, trying each day to follow God’s plan for me there are unknowns too. But they are only unknowns to me. My Father knows all the answers and I can trust Him. Friend, we walk by faith, not by sight. And walking by faith requires me to look to God today for direction for today. It is a day by day walk.
Dear friends, this is the day that God has given to me, to you. What will you do with it? I urge you that if you have not already turned to God and accepted His gift of eternal life that you would listen to His call today, while you have time, while you have breath. There is nothing more important. If you have accepted God’s gift and are His child, I encourage you to trust Him to supply your needs for today and to rest on His providence (even if part of that is working faithfully at the job He has provided for you). And I encourage you to take your plans, dreams, desires, and give them to your Father. He won’t crush them just for the sake of crushing them. Some of them may be His part of His plan for you. But whatever He does, you can know that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours ever could be, and that He loves us with an everlasting love. Let us walk by faith, today.
Hope in truth 