Wednesday, July 2, 2003
Wednesday, July 2, 2003
Give us each day our daily bread.
Of course one way of preventing future worries is to seek to be persons of character today. We
can't do anything about yesterday, but we can do something about today. Guilt plays a large role
in many people's anxiety. Forget those things that are past.
We are also to forget those things that are yet to come. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:
"Do not be anxious about tomorrow...each day has trouble enough of its own." Concentrate on
today. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? Today is the only day we can be certain of.
Norman Vincent Peale has a marvelous illustration of this. He says that when he and his wife
would drive up to their summer place. They would often arrive at night. A rough path of
stepping-stones led from the parking area to the house. On stepping out of the car with a
flashlight, he discovered that it would not illuminate the entire path, just the stones directly in
front of him. However, by stepping from one stone to another, he could reach the house quite
easily.
That is how a Christian life is best lived--focusing on one day, one step, one task at a time.
(Luke 11.3
NRSV)
Some of us are crippled by the mistakes of the past. We lie awake at night reliving past
humiliations, anticipating the consequences of past misdeeds, regretting the tragedy of missed
opportunities. No teaching is more clear in Scripture than this one. The past is gone. "Though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Paul advises us in Philippians 3:13 to
"forget those things that are past." That's great advice.
Dear God, guide me that I may live each day you give me to its fullest. Amen.
