Today's Gifts. Tomorrow's Losses.

Week by week, day by day, hour by hour I find myself both caught up in the good things that are happening or dragged down by the hard realities. My pendulum swings, and I know yours does, too. So, since God is all powerful, why can’t He just make it all good, all the time? Why can’t He just pour out one good thing after another upon me?

I suppose He absolutely could, accept, in His goodness, God knows that by providing only what I need for today, He is facilitating the development of an intimate awareness of either my lack of certain things that ultimately are capable of leading me on a quest that ends in discovering Him, or, as I learn to take the more direct route of turning immediately to Him as the source of my supply, His presence and His provision. Just as the best of personal trainers tracks your increasing stamina, resilience, and tolerances so as to facilitate the best physical developments, so God perfectly manages the human stressors upon us for the purpose of further spiritually refining us for our own protection, increasing our resilience, and then also for the furtherance of His kingdom. And besides, the gifts are never to be our focus. Misplaced focus has led me to many a heartbreak. In contrast, I experience the greatest fulfillment in the times when I am able to appropriately affix the gaze of my heart. And so we are told in Matthew 16:33-34, “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.”

And here is the interesting reality. In doing this spiritual strength training, God is actually pouring out

"Glory to Glory"

on me one good thing after another. He is allowing me to be made stronger, more connected to Him and more capable of resisting the enemy of my soul. He is facilitating a life of victory full of joy even now, here, this side of heaven. A piece of heaven on earth. ”Whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:16-18)

When the Israelites were finally able to leave their captivity in Egypt, God didn’t load them up with enough food to make the journey as many of us might have done while playing “The Oregon Trail” while hoping we wouldn’t die from dysentery (again). Nope, they were instead sent out and challenged to only take what they needed for each day. “Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” (Exodus 16:4) And this practice of daily making us aware of our need wasn’t just for the Old Testament folks. Nope. We find again in the Beatitudes themselves a recognition of the nature of our dependence, “Give us today our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)

This understanding that today’s gifts are for today and are not guaranteed to be here tomorrow is capable of helping me to prioritize my life with the utmost care and diligence. What must I make time for today because it is absolutely not guaranteed to be here tomorrow? What in my life would I angrily grieve over tomorrow if it was taken from me tonight? These are the things that will clearly indicate what is worthy of having preeminence in my life, what will be best for me to ensure is completed for my ongoing peace of mind and ultimate satisfaction in life.

Next, can I have faith to believe in light of the gifts I am learning to acknowledge in today, that He already has gifts waiting for me in each of my tomorrows? I can rest in the enjoyment of today, the contentment with what I am currently surrounded because I can trust that while there may be different circumstances tomorrow, He will be just as present and just as perfectly providing for needs I can’t even see.

The effects of the motion of the pendulum of life, whether soothing or sickening, have everything to do with to what you have chosen to anchor your life. Or rather, I would proffer, to Whom you have chosen to anchor your life. The maker of Heaven and Earth when He became clothed in flesh proved He was capable not only of creating the seas, but also of calming them.

Matthew 8:23-27

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

He displayed for us to see with earthly eyes and record as remembrances this effect not only because it might prove helpful to have documented witnessed firsthand accounts of His power over the physical world, but because He emphatically stated that we will have trouble and He knew the reassurance would be good for our hearts. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Are you anchored fully to Him today? Or are other things slipping in, vying for your attention and competing for your confidences? On Christ the solid rock you stand? Or have you even inadvertently settled for that sinking sand?

Forgive me, Lord, for my distractions that truly lead me to become sickened by things in this world. Strengthen me, sweet Holy Spirit, to fix my eyes with confident hope upon the Master and to be filled with peace even during the most unsettling of circumstances. For, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7)