LAMENTATIONS 3:22-23 – The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
THEME OF THE DAY: EACH NEW DAY MEANS NEW MERCIES. The Christian life isn’t lived one year at a time, one month at a time, or one week at a time. We live, shape, and develop the Christian life one day at a time. And if we don’t see it as such, two spiritual consequences will occur.
First, we will be tempted by the accusations of the devil and an always ready to condemn conscience to live in the many failings of our past, even as near as yesterday. No Christian is immune to this area of spiritual warfare. All of us have baggage. All of us have regrets. All of us have moments of desire wishing we could go back and parent differently, change some decisions, and alter bad choices. That is the stark reality of being sinners, yes, changed by grace, but nevertheless experiencing sinful failures in our past. Should we fall to this temptation, we will live our Christian life in the present with a focus on the past and that leads to a wasted life, a paralyzed faith, and a fruitless present. Basically, a Christian not recognizing today’s scripture and living it, will be a joyless Christian who simply exists. Learn to apply this truth of the Apostle Paul concerning our past – Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Philippians 3:13a).
The second consequence of not living the Christian life one day at a time, and that being just today, will take us to another area of temptation – looking to a not promised tomorrow to do what God commands. Not only will the devil tempt us to live today through the discouragement of past failures, but he will attempt to move us to commit the sin of procrastination; a putting off of known commands of God to a tomorrow not guaranteed. In my pastoral ministry, I have engaged Christians who were not actively involved in the spiritual life of the church beyond mere attendance for ninety-minutes on a Sunday morning and got the response, “Yes, I will be more involved when I get through this season in life.” This sin of spiritual procrastination is dangerous for a couple of reasons. One, the season of life we are experiencing today is of God and doesn’t change our spiritual responsibilities of obedience today. Another danger of sinful spiritual procrastination is the self-deception of thinking we are spiritually fine in our walks with the Lord by putting off obedience. James captures both of these dangers well in his letter – Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 4:14-15; James 1:22-25).
So, the Christian life – one day at a time, and that by applying today’s scripture – each new day to live the Christian life will be met with the sufficiency of new day mercies. In thinking and living this way, we defeat the temptations of living either in a failed past or a not promised tomorrow.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for new day mercies for each new day allowing me to forget the failures of my yesterday.”
QUOTE: “Don’t let the devil and conscience keep us from living with regret of our past. New mercies exist for a new day.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim