Today is yours!

I receive a couple of daily devotions everyday by email and going through my inbox, I spotted one with the heading, “Make today count”.

The first thing I noticed when I opened it was the scripture to accompany the message:

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 

Psalm 118:24

This hits home to me because my Pastor back in my youth opened every service he did with this verse. I remember the first time that I realized it was a scripture many years later it was the first bible verse I had ever committed to memory even though it happened by repetition and unknown to me. I can’t begin to guess how many times I heard this over those years and never gave it much thought at the time. I guess you could say that I had become so accustomed to hearing the words that I really didn’t hear them at all. What a tragedy in light of the truth they hold and I pray I never become desensitized to the Word of God again.

God blesses us in so many ways. Ways we know about and the behind the scenes work that we aren’t aware of as well. I feel that if we were to somehow pull back the curtain and take a peek into the spiritual realms and see everything God does for us, we would be not only amazed but terrified when we saw the battle the Lord wages for us each day. And in Psalm 118, He tells us today is a gift.

What about yesterday? Well yesterday is over. Maybe your day was great, filled with success and the sun shined on you from the moment you woke, until the time you went to bed. How wonderful for you. But guess what, yesterday is over.

Or maybe yesterday was the worse day of your life, and like so many of our brothers and sisters out there, yesterday was the day you got laid off or you got that letter in the mail, telling you that the bank will be foreclosing on your home. If that’s you my heart goes out to you and I say a prayer everyday for you and the many others you now keep company with. But guess what, yesterday is over.

And tomorrow? While it is important to consider tomorrow and make the appropriate plans to care for ourselves and protect our future, the future is really unknown. And as the current state of our economy shows, you can’t count on tomorrow. Some people spend so much time talking about tomorrow; they are of no good today. All you hear is “what they will do when______ happens”, “when _____ happens, I’ll be just fine” or, “I’m just waiting on_____, and then I’ll______”. Can you really count on tomorrow?

But today? Today is truly yours and it can be as special or uneventful as you choose. God gave us this day and it is a gift from Him and I for one want to make sure it’s a good one. So what will I do and how will I accomplish that? To start with I’ll open the Bible and pray, asking God to reveal Himself and his will for me today, and then commit myself to listen and obey when He does. Make a daily habit of this, then you got yourself a lifestyle worthy of the gift you have been given.

Make today count. It IS the day the Lord made, rejoice and be glad in it!

Grace and peace

Jeff