FOCUS ON TODAY
By Ruth L. Whitfield, assistant to the publisher of SpiritLed Woman magazine
By Ruth L. Whitfield, assistant to the publisher of SpiritLed Woman magazine
Several years ago when I thought I wouldn't be able to keep an appointment for a job interview due to transportation problems, I became distressed. I desperately needed a job because we had just moved and the needs were great.
Almost at the same moment that I sensed the anxiety, the word of the Lord rose up in my spirit: "This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it¡Xeven if I don't make that important interview!"
As I began to meditate on the Scripture that was the foundation of this word, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart: "This is the day. Live today. Don't waste today fantasizing about tomorrow or reminiscing about the past. Make the most of today.
"You cannot change the past. Yesterday is gone forever. You cannot live yesterday over again. You can live in only one time frame at a time. Do not look back! He who sets his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God."
He continued: "What you do today affects tomorrow. Whatever you sow today you will reap tomorrow. If you waste today, your tomorrow will be empty. If you don't plant, water and weed today, you will have no fruit tomorrow."
Fears began to rise up within me¡Xconcerns about past failures and about the unknown future. I got a bad case of the "what ifs." What if this happens? What if that happens?
I realized then that it is dangerous to fantasize about the future but not plant today for it because when the future becomes today, and there is no fruit, the day will be empty. So how do I plant?
I focus on today. I set my heart on the will of God today. I determine: I will be glad in this day. I will live for God this day. I will do my best in everything my hand finds to do this day. I will cast down vain imaginations
this day. I will bring every thought into obedience and captive to the lordship of Jesus Christ this day.
Why this day? Because if I am thinking about tomorrow's good and evil, I'm not dealing with today's requirements.
The apostle James reminds us that we can count only on the hour at hand: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that'" (James 4:13-15, NKJV). We don't know what the day will bring forth.
Sometimes we give in to our own imaginations and base our future on wishful thinking rather than on the reality of the Word of God. Those who thought the Lord was returning at the turn of the 20th century did this. Based on their belief, they quit their jobs, sold their belongings and went up to a mountain to wait.
Imagine their disappointment when He didn't come! They had to face what they should have faced earlier¡Xtheir day.
You may think you would never be this naïve. But we all are equally blind when we ignore today and dream of only the future.
Jesus said, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow…sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof' (Matt. 6:34, KJV). He didn't say just, "Don't worry'; He said, "Take no thought." He was telling us we have enough to handle today without thinking about tomorrow. Worrying about tomorrow without planting seeds today is useless.
Every day has its own set of challenges that we must face individually and as a nation. If we want to see righteousness restored in our own nation, we need to become active in the process and plant seeds of righteousness today so that they will bear the fruit of righteousness tomorrow.
Let's determine in our hearts to tackle today as if there were no other. Then the seeds we plant in obedience will bring forth a full harvest for tomorrow.
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"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it."
Matthew 11:12
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