Yesterday, today, or tomorrow?

A friend of mine (Steve Sturtevant) shared the following in a prayer bulletin he sends out nearly every week. This was written by Bob Goss.

God determines the number of your days, but you determine how they are spent. The Psalmist said, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad it.” Yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, today is all you’ve got. And you can begin your life over today. If you live by these words: “Today I will delete from my diary two days—yesterday and tomorrow. Yesterday was for learning; tomorrow will be a consequence of what I do today. Today I will face life with the conviction that this day will never return, that it may be the last opportunity I’ll have to contribute because there’s no guarantee I’ll see tomorrow. Today I will be courageous enough not to let opportunity pass me by; my only alternative will be to succeed. Today I will invest my most valuable resource, my time, into my most important possession, the life God has given me. I’ll spend each minute purposefully, making today a unique opportunity. I’ll tackle each obstacle knowing that with God’s help I can overcome it. Today I will resist doubt and pessimism and warm my world with a smile. I’ll maintain a strong faith, expect nothing but the best, take time to be happy, see every task as an opportunity to honor the Lord, and endeavor to leave His footprints on the hearts of those I meet.” John Boykin wrote, “Time is your life—nothing more, nothing less. The way you spend your hours and days, is way you spend your life.”

Trust . . . again?

I have written about trust before.  In fact, several times.  You're probably beginning to think I have a trust issue.  As a matter of fact, I believe that assessment would be correct, sadly.  As the father of the possessed boy said, "Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)  I admit, there are times when an overwhelming fear crawls up my chest and seems to hang there on my heart.  It darkens my thoughts.  It distracts my focus.  It has shaken me to my core, at times.  What could I possibly be afraid of?  Plenty. It really doesn't matter, does it?  I'm afraid of dying, spiders, snakes, big dogs, pitch black, plane crashes, etc.  Anything that could create fear.  I am also afraid of failing.  There, I said it.  Sometimes, I'm petrified of failing.  I'm also afraid of change, of losing my job, of not finding a job, of not being considered worth giving a job to, of being so undervalued that no one would even glance in my direction.  Yep, I'm afraid.

So, you ask, "With all that fear, why did you title and begin this post about trust?"  Well, stop and think about it.  What causes fear?  An absence of trust in God.  It's that same trust that Abraham exhibited when God told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees to go to a land "that I will show you."  Really?  If it was just Abe, no problem.  But, he had a household.  He was married.  He had people, lots of 'em, that he was responsible for.  Pack up and leave?  Where to?  Doesn't matter.  It was a place that God would show him at some point in the future, not even at the point of departure, but sometime in the future.  Abraham would know when he arrived.  Until then, God was asking Abraham to start the journey.  The underlying and most important lesson and actual end result of the journey was that Abraham trusted God. That trust was "counted as righteousness".  Abraham relied on God, trusted Him, and rested in God.  ALL the time?  HA!  Nope, sure didn't.  In fact, Abraham blew it majorly sometimes.  At one point, he flat decided to take his life into his own hand and tried to trust in his own wits.  Wrong move.  You know what happened between Abraham and a king or two.  God says, "Trust ME!"  So, back to the father mentioned above (Mark 9:24).  I can almost hear Abraham in that father's words.  "God, I believe, but only almost. For some reason I keep thinking I can 'do it on my own.'"  Yet, like Abraham, when I do that, I find myself full of fear.  So, "Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.  Help me to rest in you!"  Trust Him, folks.  He has proven trustworthy through all of life.  We may not fully see it, but He has never let us down.  Why do we think He will let us down now?  If He has proven true and trustworthy in the past, the best thing you and I can do is just trust Him.  When we live in that trusting relationship with God, our trust will also be "accounted to [us] as righteousness".