God of Today
"See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called 'Today,' so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end." (Hebrews 3:12-14 NIV)
I am a worrier, a planner, a think-aheader. I want to know what’s going to happen and what I’m going to do about it.
Of course, God has embedded His love letter with message after message telling me, “Tomorrow does not belong to you. It belongs to Me! I’ve given you today as a gift. What are you going to do with it?”
I know my life is a vapor: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:13, 14).
I know worrying equal disobedience and mistrust: "The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it" (Matthew 13:22 MSG).
I know faith in what has already happened is not faith at all but rather gratitude and that faith is about what I don’t know and can’t see yet: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for" (Hebrews 11: 1,2).
So what am I supposed to be doing "while it is yet Today," on this day I can see, while I'm on my way to what I can't yet see? What am I supposed to be doing in my "meantimes"?
The answer I always come back to is, "Do the next thing."
The next thing that’s good to do.
The next thing that should be done.
Pray. Worship. Work. Encourage others. Serve. Love.
About such things, there is no uncertainty. These are always good next things to do. My job is to try to do them faithfully in the meantime while I wait for God to do the next thing in His time.
“Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next” (Elisabeth Elliot, Quest for Love: True Stories of Passion and Purity).
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!