This Day....

I recently heard something that made me stop & think.

REALLY think.

Ready?

Here it is.

There are ONLY two days you have to be concerned about.

THIS day.

and

THAT day.

I know....WOW!

As followers of Christ, we are told that fear, worry, concern...or whatever euphamism you use...is NOT of the Lord. Yet, we habitually put the fears & troubles of the days we live in firmly into our own little grubby hands & hold on to it like it is something precious.

Why?

The One who loves us more than any other has told us that we would never be forsaken...that He knows the number of hairs on our heads, so SURELY he knows about the trials of our days. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, so SURELY he can fix the problems we face. If He could make the rocks cry out to worship Him, then he can do ANY thing.

I know in my case that the scripture, "I believe, help thou my unbelief" is my problem. I KNOW He can do all things....for other people. I believe that He has done mighty & wonderful works...for others.

Yes, He has done some things for us. You know, little stuff....in comparison to this biggie I'm facing now. Yes, those little things were good, but this...is...just......so....BIG! I don't think He'll follow through now.

Oh, I know He let Gideon beat all kinds of trained soldiers with just a few farmer-type men with their pots & pans or whatever. I know that He made the water part, the walls fall, the dead to rise, the blind to see, the leper to be clean...I KNOW all of that. And I believe it, too. But....well...that was in BIBLE times.

This is the 21st century.

There are just so many things that He could have changed, but didn't.

I have seen friends suffer with cancer...and DIE! That wasn't right!

I have seen young lives snuffed out senselessly. WHAT?!?

I have seen suffering in marriages-spouses just walking away. WHY?

I have seen people who were a blessing & a tool that He was using, turn their sights to the world in some of the worst ways imaginable. REALLY???

I KNOW God did amazing things in BIBLE times, but He just doesn't seem to fix whats wrong now. I must consider this small fact: every instance of pain & suffering during Bible times was not recorded. There were things that were NOT reversed.

And yet...they believed.

That woman with the issue had so much faith that her Lord would heal her, she didn't even talk to Him...just touched his clothing...His muddy, grimy, filthy hem! Did that faith come because she had only known miraculous things from her birth? I doubt it.

How do I get this kind of faith?

This sort of trust in the One who loves me more than I can fathom?

It is possible that it has something to do with only being concerned with the two days I mentioned above.

Living THIS day-only.

Not YESTERday.

Not TOmorrow.

Not last year.

Not next year.

THIS day.

No matter how we want to, we cannot change what happens on any other day by worrying about it today. We only have control over one day at a time. In fact...one minute at a time! I can say that I plan to go to church this afternoon...but it may not happen. Something out of my control may occur to make it impossible to attend. Would worrying about it now change anything? Of course not.

So, if we live only THIS day in preparation for THAT day, we cannot go wrong. THAT day is the day that our Lord returns for His people. THAT day should be the focus of all of our THIS days!

It is so easy to let the stresses of life drag us down. Have you ever said,

"Gah! Could this day get ANY WORSE???"

My guess is, yes, you have!

Have you ever said,

"Wow! Could this day get ANY BETTER???"

It is possible to say this even if you are having a low-down rotten, stinky kinda day.

Yesterday was like that for me. Up & down like a roller coaster I had been forced to ride. I'm not fond of roller coasters, so it didn't thrill me. I fought the downhill thrusts mightily, but without much success. I cannot even put my finger on my feelings of doom & gloom. It was Saturday...a church day, and I just kept going down...to the point of not wanting to go to church. Now, church is a priority for me...so, not going is not normal. I had to take control of my THIS day so that it would be a preparation for THAT day. Now, I would love to be able to say at this point that some miraculous event occurred & I ended the day on a peak, but that's not true. Instead, I trudged through the motions of getting ready for church, drug my stinkin' carcass to the church house & thought, "well, I'm here." God was faithful to help me out, though. The songs were very uplifting, I visited with friends, listened to some encouraging words. I felt in communion with my Lord. Ah! Then church was over & real-life resumed. Gah! Well, I am not perfect, Never said I was. :)

The point of my droning is to say that my priority was to THAT day, so I made the most of THIS day in preparation for THAT day. It wasn't huge leaps, but it was progress. I think that, with God, even baby steps count as progress. Don't you?

So, now, my responsibility is to go & make THIS day count for THAT day.