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Jesus said in His mountain message, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). What a telling statement. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the value and beauty of a single day.
Each day has its own sunrise. No two are exactly alike. Every day is different, with its own weather, its own wind and temperature, its own warmth or lack of it. Every sunrise is special in its own way. They are all similar, but no two are the same.
What a joy to see a new day born. Every sunrise speaks of a new beginning—a new slate, a new page. No matter how bad last night’s nightmare, or yesterday’s bad weather, with the first splash of sunshine across your face, everything is washed clean and you can start over. With each new day we are raised up to new possibilities, new perspectives, new opportunities to serve and glorify God.
Each day has its, own thoughts. The thoughts that accompany each new day relate directly to neither, yesterday or tomorrow; they belong peculiarly to today. You can’t do tomorrow’s thinking today. Sure, you can plan for tomorrow; but the thought you used to do so is today’s thought, not tomorrow’s. And you can relate back to yesterday in your mind, but the very thoughts you used are today’s thoughts, not yesterday’s. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Today’s thoughts belong to today.
Every day brings new circumstances and new possibilities. Circumstances have to be handled. So do possibilities. You have to choose every day what you’ll do with them. That means you have to meditate, contemplate, discriminate, then decide on what actions you will take about what’s happening around you. Oh, you can put off thinking about it, but procrastination seldom serves anybody well, and you’ll likely be sorry if you put it off until later.
Good and evil thoughts battle each of us every day. We all have some of both. You have to choose which you will allow residency in your mind. “…give no place to the Devil,” Paul said (Ephesians 4:27). Someone has said “you can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair.” It’s that way with evil thoughts. They’re going to race through your mind every day—count on it—but you don’t have to give them a place to stay.
Each day has its, own joy and its, own sadness. Information—both good and bad—travels quickly these days. Each day you’ll find some good news and some bad, some joy and some sadness. Both, it seems to me, are necessary to life. The joys bring us encouragement and give us pleasure. Sadness brings us to a realization of whom and where we are, and the fragileness of time.
Solomon said, “in the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider” (Ecclesiastes 7:14). When the day is good we should rejoice and be thankful; when it is not, we should give due consideration to the fragileness of life.
Each day is a gift from God. Every one of them lasts 24 hours. It’s up to us what we do with them. We can use them to glorify God, or we can waste them with inordinate pleasures, worldly ambitions, and illicit thoughts. It’s up to each one to decide what 24 hours will mean in your life. No matter how many of those 24 hours we still have, each one is its own, and each one will be used as we see fit to use it.
I read somewhere that “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, that’s why we call it the present.” Brother George MacDonald said, “It is not the care of the day, but the cares of tomorrow that weigh man down. For the needs of today, we have corresponding strength given. For the morrow, we must trust. It is not ours yet.”
“Today, if you will hear His voice…” (Psalm 95:7).
Jimmy
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