I struggled in the past to get my mind and my soul around God’s command for me to begin taking life one day at a time because I didn’t get the connection to another part of His equation for my life.
It has never been too hard for me to discern God’s will for my life because I have actively pursued that channel for the majority of the years I have spent in His ministry. However, when I began to focus on just the 24 hours God has given me each day, and not yesterday or tomorrow, I just couldn’t seem to get myself out of the way in determining what those 24 hours were to contain.
I was not taking God into account and I was doing the opposite of what the Spirit was telling me to do…
Ps 37:4-5 Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.
We all are familiar with verse 4 and the fact that if we “delight” (anag; be soft or pliable) ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the “desires” (mishalah; requests) of our heart. He will place in our heart the desires He has for us that will always work to draw us closer to Him and conform us into His image; how we were created in the first place (Gen 1:27). In other words, let our heart remain “pliable” to the working of the Holy Spirit, trusting in Him to reveal to us the “perfect desires” of God for our life.
Really straight forward; right?. So, why do I struggle with it more often than not?
John 14:27 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
What I realized is that I often take God out of my 24 hour decisions once He has shown me what the day holds for me. I know what He is asking of me, but then I put my mind to work and wind up taking God out of the equation; the “work” He has established for me. I find myself becoming troubled and afraid because I have let my “old nature” into the picture and I have taken responsibility for all the “calculations” in carrying it out… Ok Lord, I got this! I take the only One who knows what needs to be done right out of the equation. In the process I often find myself ignoring the wisdom of Moses…
Ps 90:17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
If we are looking to God to lead us through our current 24 hours then can we afford to take Him out of the decisions we make? It is His desire that rests in our heart in response to our “request” for Him to show us His perfect will for us. Therefore, it only makes sense to let Him lead us in the decisions we make in carrying out our “work” on His behalf; living our daily life in accordance with His will that will bring Him the glory.
Let’s be mindful that it is important to put God first in the practical challenges of life, not just the ones we encounter on Sunday. Then we will truly be able to walk with Him in perfect harmony, without our heart being troubled or in fear… One day at a Time (Matt 6:33-34).