Friends of Faith:
Don’t put off until tomorrow, what you can do today. Now is the time.
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” Mother Teresa
Yesterday’s readings were all about God providing… for today’s needs. But in my human nature, I am always searching for tomorrow’s desires instead of thanking God for the blessings he is providing me today. AND instead of using those blessings for God’s call, I often find myself responding that I will make time “tomorrow.”
“Today somebody is suffering, today somebody is in the street, today somebody is hungry. ... We have only today to make Jesus known, loved, served, fed, clothed, sheltered. Do not wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow we will not have them if we do not feed them today.” ― Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living
“But now, listen to what I am about to state in your hearing and the hearing of all the people. From of old, the prophets who were before you and me prophesied war, woe, and pestilence against many lands and mighty kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace is recognized as truly sent by the LORD only when his prophetic prediction is fulfilled.” Jer 28: 7-9 (emphasis added)
So, am I so busy planning for a tomorrow that will never come that I am missing the peace and the joys of today? And, am I so busy helping myself that I am failing to help others who are searching for and waiting to be fed – with my smile, with a kind word, with the fulfillment of a need which opens their eyes or ears and speaks to them of Jesus’ presence?
Right now I am praying for patience until our building is released so that we can go in and recover, then demolish, and then rebuild. But I realize as I pray for patience I often find myself more focused on asking for what I can’t have, then for speaking about all that I do have – offices and space to operate out of, family and neighbors sent to help out – blessings of gifts and provisions too countless to even fully acknowledge, blessings of peace I won’t fully recognize until the predictions of a new building are fulfilled.
So while it is often tempting to focus on and ask for tomorrow’s gifts, it is today that I am needed, today that needs me, today that I can make a difference and it is for today that God provides.
“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rm 8: 35-39
And what separates me from answering God today? It is only me and my desire to make my own answers for tomorrow– sin caused by greed, fear, and a lack of trust because I am trying to have control, provide and protect myself instead of giving God an opportunity to rule over death, life, powers, principalities and time.
“Thus says the LORD: All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully ,listen, that you may have life.” Is 55: 1-3
Heavenly Father, Your love is the answer. Help me to rely on You—to be in Your presence and Your peace by saying yes when you ask me to spread that peace and love to others. Help me to filter out the noise of tomorrow, and instead find the patience to enjoy what you provide me today. Make ME an instrument of Your peace. Thank you for the gift of today. Amen.
God will provide – he will give us peace, if we recognize Him, by thanking him for the peace we have today instead of trying to look far into the future. And when we get to the future we will look back and say, yes God has provided the answers, he offered us peace – if only we had taken it, been content and waited not for tomorrow, but had enjoyed all we were given today.
So what good for God have you been putting off until tomorrow? When you stop to think that tomorrow may never come, what is it that you wish you would have done today?
Plan today to give God glory by what you do TODAY,
Blessings,
Charlotte
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