Wake Up, Its Already Today

In my daily prayer I attempt to ask God each day to help me cast down strongholds and vain thoughts and imaginations; everything that exalts its self against the will of God in my life. I really don’t want to waste time in a day or thought that don’t belong to me. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) Many will miss much in the coming days because they are dreaming yesterday’s dreams and hoping in tomorrow’s hope. They will fail to live life where it is happening, that is in today.

There will be some wonderful things happen in your life in the coming days, don’t miss the moments wishing for yesterday and just hoping in a tomorrow that’s not yet.

A famous scientist and brilliant mathematician whose last name was Pascal lived during the 1600’s in France. He is known for such ideas as the “Pascal Triangle.”  Pascal also wrote some theological writings. In the booklet Spiritual Classic Pascal said:

“We never keep our minds on the present moment. We remember the past, as if we wanted to slow down the passage of time. And we look forward to the future, as if we wanted time to accelerate. We wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think about the only time that does. We dream of times past and future, and flee from the present. The reason is that the present is usually painful. We push it out of sight because it distresses us – only on those few occasions which are truly enjoyable are we sorry to see time slip away. We try to reduce present pain with joyful hopes of the future, planning how we are going to arrange things in a period over which we have no control and which we cannot be sure of reaching. The past and present are our means, and the future alone is our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live. We are never actually happy, but constantly planning to become happy.”

OK, so Pascal wasn’t the life of the party but he made a brilliant statement here.

We often miss the opportunity of ministry, relationship, blessings and simply enjoying the moment, because we are wondering around in a times that do not belong to us. We put our energy in days we can’t control. In doing so we miss the power of the moment or the chance of a lifetime!  We stumble around in the mistakes and/or blessing of yesterday or we daydream of what tomorrow may bring and miss what God is trying to do today in our life. We have prayed for blessings yet we fail to focus on the time where the blessings will be, where living is happening. Today! God will do all the miracles of your life in Today. God will put all your blessings in Today.

I thank God for His promises and have faith in what He will do in the days to come. I believe that planning is necessary and important yet, tomorrow does not yet belong to me. Though tomorrow is out there, my usefulness and my accomplishments along with how I touch my day, has to happen now in the present. I will find joy in the present. I will make a difference in the present. This is the day that the Lord has created, I must rejoice in this day. As the Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church; “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now (present time) is the accepted time; behold, now (present time) is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 NKJV

We regret past mistakes, things we said or did, we look forward to how things will be better in the future. In doing so we must be careful not to miss the power of this present moment. If we are not carful we will totally miss living this life today.

LOOKING BACK – where some people live.

 

The past is where you find the history of the church. Unfortunately far too many Christians are still caught in the pages of yesterday and how it once was. They can describe their “heyday” as though it just happen is the last service they attended. Don’t get me wrong, I love to hear about its history and what God has done for the church. I love to read about the great blessings of God in the yesteryears of the church. I don’t want to ever forget my heritage. But my greatest blessing needs to happen in my present. My greatest anointing needs to come in this day.

I have seen people that possessed such a pride over their past that they gave up on their future.

They believed it would never be like it once was. They communicate no hope for today. They try to repeat the past to make it happen again and never changed and move on in life.

Another unhealthy form of days-gone-by is explaining or excusing the present by analyzing the past. I have seen people that never moved past an event or happening in their life. Yes, bad things happen and cause pain. Yes, failure has a price to pay but just because something didn’t happen right or something failed to workout is no reason to stop or quit. You can’t live in your past, its days that don’t belong to you anymore.

LOOKING AHEAD – where some choose to live.

 

The future can also be a dangerous place for one’s life. Tomorrow will destroy today just like yesterday does. Looking ahead will often sidetrack those people that are opposite of those who are hung up in the past. The people who are sidetracked by the future most of the time have little to affect them in their past. So their greatest days are still somewhere out there ahead of them. These people live a lot of moments that says, “One of these days.” I have seen people that invested so much time planning for tomorrow that they never actually implemented anything today. It’s not that they never do anything, they are usually busy people, they go through the day of existing but they are not producing.

Another form of futurist is demonstrated by changing programs rather than changing the person. We continually are looking for the latest, “secret sauce” the latest new “black box” or some new powered recipe. We think that this newest idea is the answer to our problems or needs. These people spend time, today’s moments, saying one-of-these-days and it is nothing more than an excuse to never change. A quick picture of this is diet plans and New Year’s resolutions.

When we use the phrase “one of these days” or “tomorrow I will” we are failing to live in today and it will cost you. (Met people who had a new plan everything you saw them.) Another problem with always living in tomorrow is that you become bored with the present. Listen, the present will never be as big as your daydreams. The present will never be like the perfect story you have reserved for tomorrow. If you ever plan on riding in on a white charger to save the day, you had better learn how to ride the pony now and live effectively in today.

I am a firm believer in planning and dreaming for tomorrow. I personally spend time regularly dreaming and asking “what-if”. My Dad always told me to dream. He also said I would have to wake-up to make them happen. You will always wake up from a dream in Today.

The future is days that do not yet belong to us yet.

Don’t miss the wonder of today wishing for yesterday or tomorrow. They don’t belong to us but today does.

Continue to Hope Part 2

Last week I started a list of seven ways to continue one’s hope. It is a list I received from Vesta Mangun years ago. I have preached and taught this list and try to personally live it.

Before I give you the last four points I want to share part of an email I received from Misty in response to last week’s article. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Misty wrote;

 This came to me while reading my Bible in the fall last year, just before my surgery.   It really helped my perspective in getting through all of that.

Hebrews 12:1 is such a common verse, but something stuck out to me that I had never seen or heard before.   For reference, the whole verse is, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."   

The part I put in bold JUMPED out at me.    With running a race, you don't run with patience, you are trying to hurry as fast as you can.   Patience and running don't go together.   It's an oxy-moron.  But the Lord is telling us, your race has been set.   Your obstacle course is already in order.   Nothing surprises Him, as your journey is established.....MY job is to run it with patience.   In those difficult times, be patient.   When you're waiting for that blessing, be patient.   In my recovery, I had to be patient.   It was what the Lord orchestrated in my life, I had to patiently run the race that was set before me.

I'm so thankful the Lord establishes our steps!  Thanks for letting me share.  Have a great day, while you run with patience!   

Thanks Misty for those wonderful words.

Here are the last four points from last week. Enjoy!

1.      Remember every trial is only temporary.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 1Peter 1:6-7 NKJV 

The storm can’t last forever! A season is only an area in life. The sun will rise and will set but it will rise again. The winter will not last forever. Spring will come again with fresh growth and start you towards a new harvest and production.  It is a hot oven that produces fresh bread. God is a God of all seasons and the season will change!

2.      Look at hard times as discipline, not condemnation.

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:1-6 NKJV 

A fruit tree bears fruit on new branches. Pruning or cutting will produce more new branches, thus giving more new fruit. It is the will of God that we produce much fruit. Discipline causes us to do a better job. Don’t allow your circumstances to make you bitter. Allow tuff times to cause you to grow. Remember clay is shaped under pressure, hardened in fire, then used in honor.

3.      Keep your sense of humor; laughter is the best medicine.

A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

Proverbs 17:22 NKJV

What happens to us is not nearly as important as how we respond. Dried bones are lifeless and only a miracle from God ever changed them. We can become so bitter and crushed that we dry up and become a bitter life void of anything productive.

Dried bones are only a reminder of what used to be, they are skeletons of past greatness. We can’t allow our life to go down that road. There are many reasons and blessings to still smile about.

4.      Count your blessing; rejoice greatly!

A remedy that will work! Cling to all your past blessings and answered prayers. Don’t forget to remind the devil, this world, and yourself of what God has done for you in the past, and the prayers that the Lord has answered before. If He did it once He will do it again. If God has touched me before He will put His hand on me again!

Remember to praise and worship, shout and sing before the wall falls, because it will fall again.

Hope, it is in the Lord. I can’t lose hope because if I do it is as if God doesn’t matter to me. I could easily step across that line and become an unbeliever if I lose hope. Yes, life will take the living out of you, so for that reason alone we can’t lose the hope God has promised us.

I must get hold with both hands the promises of God that is where my hope is. My hope is in the Lord.

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. Psalm 39:7

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: Psalm 146:5

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

Lamentations 3:22-25 

Continue to Hope

I took my Bible today and read through one of my favorite Psalms, the 37^th chapter. I have marked it more than any of the psalms and have memorized parts of it. It is a psalm of David and my Holman Bible titles it David persuades to be patience and confidence in God. In the margin of my Bible beside verses 3, 4, and 5 I wrote words to live by. These verses have been a staple in my life since my teens. Look them up and spend some time with them. Verses 7 and 8 are also marked. Newly marked is verse 11. Then 22-28 are all marked and in the middle of these verses stands bold and full of promise verse 23. My hope is entwined in this verse. I will print this one for you to read.

The steps of a good man are ordered (fixed, set up, established) by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Psalm 37:23 

I listened the other night as a minister explained this verse in a fresh new way for me. He said the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord. The word ordered means fixed or established. In other words it is already set. The minister said we don’t have to make the road or the way we simply need the illumination of the Spirit to show the way. Much like one would travel a highway at night. They don’t have to build the road they just need the head lights on to see it. God has already fixed our directions we just need the light of the Spirit to show us the direction we need to go. God already has the path set and made. The rest of the verse shows us God must delight or have pleasure in the fact that He has some wonderful things coming our way. We simply need to get the light of the Spirit shining on what He has planned.

I have also marked verse 34 and 37. Take your Bible and breath in this wonderful psalm.

On this note I want to share something I was given almost 30 years ago that was a hand out from a bible class taught by Vesta Mangun. It called seven ways to continue my hope. I hope you glean as much from this as I have over the last thirty years. I have kelp them and studied them and even taught them. I don’t believe they are the only ways but simply seven things we can do to continue our hope. I have added my own thoughts in with them as well. I will share the first three this week and the last four next week.

Seven Ways to Continue my Hope

1.      God accepts us where we are and will help us there!

15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJV

This will have to get in us or we will go under! My righteousness is as dirty rags but I can bring my hopeless life to God and He covers my life because of the blood of Jesus. I don’t have to accomplish some daring feat I simply go to Him, the Lord will touch me where I am and help me there. The Lord can be touched! Whatever the need, I belong to the Lord of the house and He will help me where I am at.

2.      Sometimes resting is better than reaching, trusting better than trying.

I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Psalm 40:1-4 KJV

After we have done all we can do, after praying, after fasting, the next move is God’s move. We can’t do the impossible only He can. So we call on Him and rest in the fact that The Lord of the House is in control.  T.F. Tenny said, “We praise God for open doors, but we don’t praise Him for closed doors. A closed door can be as much the will of God as an opened one.”  I challenge you to wait and see what God will do.

The Shepherd will hear the voice of the sheep. So take a deep breath and watch God work, wait patiently. Don’t cast away your confidence.

3.      Whatever your trial is, God will use it for good, if we will let Him.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 KJV

A.D. Urshan said, “Thank God for anything that makes you pray.”

God will not leave us there to wallow in our valley; He will deliver us but in doing so the Lord will do a great thing with the ones whose hope is in Him. It’s God’s way of putting something in our hands to fight with! Cut the devil’s head off with your circumstance. Use your circumstances for the Glory of God; use them to come at the devil with a second wind. The song “All is Well With My Soul,” was written while Mr. Spaford hung over the rail of a ship weeping because his children had drowned. Thomas A. Dorsey wrote the hymn “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” while mourning the death of his young wife and son who died in the child’s birth. While sitting in the music room of a friend on a Sunday, he thought he was through with God, he said, “As my fingers began to manipulate over the keys, words began to fall in place like water drops falling from a crevice of rock.”  

Keep your hope in the Lord. Trust in the Lord at all times.

We will finish these next week.