In “What Could Today Be?,” Alex talks about how we can live life without God letting our circumstances rule over us or with Him allowing Him to give us love, joy and peace in the midst of our circumstances.
Take advantage of what today could be, and don’t be distracted by what it’s not.
A few weeks ago, I gave a message under this heading. I would like to share a condensed version of that message with you all here.
What might God be speaking or intending through the moments of my day in order for me to know Him, become like Him and live so others would know Him?
From the small to large moments, each person’s life is meticulously created for us to know God and make Him known. For instance, I see a bird fly from her nest to find a worm buried somewhere amongst a vast lawn. She finds one and I watch her flutter back up to her nest to nourish her vulnerable, chirping young. Now, I could pass off that unique moment and be distracted by the fact that it wasn’t as cool as if an eagle dove on that bird mid-flight, or I can take advantage of the moment to grasp more deeply what Jesus meant when He said the Father cares more for us than the birds which have all they need. God knows you have responsibilities and a life sometimes fraught with unforeseen circumstances, and if He protects and provides for the birds, He will for us all the more when we trust Him.
Not all moments have to mean something, but they could. They could be an opportunity to witness God, grow in the knowledge of Him and draw nearer to Him. “The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3).
How can a larger moment, then, indicate God’s pervasive and providential wisdom? A worldwide pandemic? Societal tensions? If it affects you (even if only indirectly), God may have a message for your heart.
In John Piper’s book, Coronavirus and Christ, he writes, “God put the physical world under a curse so that the physical horrors we see around us in diseases and calamities would become a vivid picture of how horrible sin is…Physical pain is God’s trumpet blast to tell us that something is dreadfully wrong in the world. Disease and deformity are God’s pictures in the physical realm of what sin is like in the spiritual realm…God is mercifully shouting to us in these days: Wake up! Sin against God is like this! It is horrible and ugly. And far more dangerous than the Coronavirus” (Piper, p.45-46).
In other words, God causes or allows attention grabbing events–good and bad, small and large–to help bring us to Himself that we might abide in Him, become like Him and make Him known, as we should.
BUT (and that’s a big “but”) (hehe), those God-initiated, holiness-inducing moments will not always yield those results. Why? Because although God is Sovereign, Almighty, Creator of all things seen and unseen, and has a good, loving and perfect providential purpose for all things, He gives us a choice and a responsibility…the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil… To live in God’s overwhelming and pervasive, all satisfying goodness or give it up, walk away, distracted by weak and cheap desires, as CS Lewis put it, only to receive nothing but the sense of pain and loss those desires ultimately lead to in the end. The choice is love: Do you love God? Because “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). The reality of experiencing good out of every circumstance is only true of those who love God.
Those who love God love Him because they abide in Him, they pay attention to Him, they understand the way He works in tangible and unfathomable ways and so they know that their heavenly Father is meticulously involved in their life for their ultimate good. A child doesn’t question their good parent. The child loves them because they know who’s their provider and protector. Through loving discipline and tight hugs, they know they can always run to the one(s) who is always there. The child’s life is oriented around their parent(s).
The heavenly Parent works in much more intricate ways and there is a much more existential meaning to the daily moments. Which necessitates our attention in a world which specializes in temptations, districations, and overall soul chaos. We must remain near God to hear and see Him through it all. Yet, we mustn’t become distracted away from the ultimate reason for our existence, especially the son and daughter of God who have been given insight as to what the true meaning for life is and the true events to come.
In the book After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, N.T. Wright explains what it means to anticipate the end goal of the Christian life here and now. By anticipating, we think about what we believe will happen in the future and we prepare for it in advance. He gives an example of anticipating a rainstorm so I will wear a rain jacket even if right now the sun is shining.
When it comes to Christian living, we anticipate the coming Kingdom of Christ so we obey Jesus as King now, even though His official reign on Earth has yet to be established. We behave and order our lives now by faith on the basis of who we believe Jesus is and what He says is coming in the future.
We may not understand or be able to predict most of our lives, but God, through His Word, has given us special insight into what’s to come that we might take advantage of the day to live in anticipation. Taking advantage of what today could be is a life oriented around the person of Jesus and acknowledges that His coming again to set all things right could happen at any moment. So, I won’t waste today seeking salvation from the Fallen world’s lifestyle and evil opportunities because that won’t bring me to Jesus in the life and peace He promises.
It is a conscious decision day by day, moment by moment, small or big, to have faith that God is with us and we are in Him. He wants that intentional communion with you. To encounter Him in the home, in the workplace, the store, the gym, the sidewalk, the classroom, wherever you find yourself these days. He is before you, behind you, with you and inside you. How much of Him are you going to allow yourself to experience though? To tap into? Because life for us can go one of two ways: with Him or without Him. And oh, how easy we are deceived into living without Him! Part of living with God is intentionally choosing to love Him knowing all life is a constant opportunity to see Him work all things together for good.
What could today be for the ultimate purpose of my life with God here on this earth? What moments have happened in the recent days which you’ve been annoyed with, angered by, and chosen to ignore for the sake of your happiness and sanity? Don’t let that moment escape your memory without allowing yourself to feel what you feel and ask God why. Listen to the Spirit, God’s trying to tell you something (That sentence is actually from a Marvin Sapp song). Don’t be distracted by what that moment seemingly “stole” from you. Coronavirus has “stole” so many things that we are consciously or unconsciously grieving in the aftermath and although 2020 is over, life in a broken world is not. We resist becoming distracted by what today is not because of the effects of the pandemic (or any other dissatisfactory moment), because if it stands true that God’s purposeful sovereignty prevails over all evil, including coronavirus, for His good, perfect and pleasing purposes (and it does), then perhaps what we thought Coronavirus stole from us is actually a merciful act of God which will result in our ultimate good. And so will all other possible moments and circumstances.
For “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28, italics added). “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18, italics added).
Stay focused my brothers and sisters. Have faith. Love God. Take advantage of what today could be, and don’t be distracted by what it’s not.
What could today be if you took the time to invite God into your day? If you sought to live with Him? Take some moments throughout your day to invite God and ask Him to meet you right in the middle of your life’s circumstances.
Author:
Hey, everybody! My name is Alex! I have a growing passion for the Scriptures, being changed by them as they fill my mind and heart. Through teaching and preaching, I desire to help other believers know the abounding richness of the Scriptures for themselves. Read more of my writing here.
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