Friday, April 15, 2016
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You remember the first day of school when you were little? New crayons, new pencils with sharp points, a new notebook with nothing written in it, maybe even some clothes you'd never worn before. Then as you got older, that first day of school meant there were no grades in the teacher's book yet, no absences, no tardies. It's a nice feeling. You know what? You have a lifetime of those first days!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Every Day's The First Day."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Lamentations, where we catch the great prophet Jeremiah on an emotional downer. It's Lamentations 3:19-22. "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me." Now Jeremiah's remembering yesterdays with a lot of garbage and a lot of failure in them. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: (Whoa! The mood is changing here.) Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." I love those words - "His compassions...new every morning."
Now, what's so positive about that first day of school is that it's a brand new beginning – no marks on your record, a lot of opportunities that are untouched so far – a fresh start. But when God is your Father, every day is supposed to be like that – a new beginning. That's the way you were meant to live, waking up each morning and saying, in the words of Scripture, "This is the day the Lord has made." Not the weather, not your boss, not your medical condition, not your mood, not your finances. "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." Yesterday's over, and it can't be changed. Tomorrow's not here yet, so there's no point in trying to live tomorrow's challenges today. You don't have tomorrow's grace, tomorrow's strength yet.
God has made this wonderful promise in Deuteronomy 33:25. "Your strength will equal your days." Now, you'll never have a day for which God will not provide matching strength. If you're facing let's say a 50-pound day, God's going to give you 50 pounds of strength. If tomorrow is going to be a 100-pound day, He'll make sure you have 100 pounds of strength. But if you try to worry about tomorrow with today's strength, you're going to sink. God's emotional, spiritual, and physical resources are measured out in 24-hour injections. So don't try to handle more than today with today's strength.
Now if you will sincerely confess the sins of yesterday to the Lord, you can start this new day with no marks on your record – a fresh start – because you invite Christ to be the Lord of that part of you where you have failed in the past. You can wake up looking for a new mission for this day, new matchups between you and people God wants you to influence. And there'll be new resources for this new day, like those new crayons and the unused pencils of the first day of school. It's what Jesus called "our daily bread."
Maybe you've been overwhelmed lately because you've forgotten the "dailyness" that you were created to live in. You've been letting too much of yesterday and tomorrow become part of your today. We have this tendency to deal with this huge blob called "my life." Why don't you try just dealing with "my day" instead of "my life"? When you wake up in the morning, remember that this 24 hours is a unique, never before, never again gift from God. There's never been a day like it before; there'll never will be another day just like it again. Every day is that first day of school – clean paper, new crayons, sharp pencils, no marks.
Let God make each day a fresh new beginning!