Dean Atchison, who was Secretary of State during the Truman administration, said, “The future comes one day at a time.” Here we are in the waning days of the year 2003, and while it is true that the future comes one day at a time, time does seem to be moving faster as we approach the return of our Lord from heaven, when he will set up his kingdom and right all the wrong things in the world.
Year end is a natural time for reflection. We may feel anxious about the future. We certainly do not know what this New Year holds for us. It has been said, “We can’t fear the past. Fear is a future thing. And since the future’s all in our heads, fear must be a head thing.” Rather than fear the future, let us face it with confidence, knowing that now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Since we only have to face the future one day at a time, let us trust the guiding hand of the Lord, who gives us new strength to face the rising of the sun every morning.
In the parable of the sower, the seed withered when it was choked by weeds or lacked water and depth of soil. Our growth in godliness is stunted if we have no time for God. We must not let our jobs, our hobbies, and our daily chores fill up our lives. Our time is a gift, a resource that we must treasure and use wisely. Harvey Mackay once said, “Time is free, but it is priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” That is why the apostle Paul tells us to redeem the time, because the days are evil.
Our time is really the only thing we can give to God. How we spend our time determines who we are and what we will become. Jesus instructs us in his Sermon on the Mount saying, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
We all have read these words of the Lord many times before, but we need to do more than just read them again. We need to live them. We need to make our service to God our number-one priority in life.
Let us press forward toward the mark of our high calling with faith and not with fear. We must trust in the Lord with all our hearts and refuse to lean upon our own understanding, knowing that He will direct our paths and that all things will work out for our ultimate good. What a great way to live!
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One