ONE DAY AT A TIME

The everyday of a man’s life has a long list of to-dos, needs and wants to cope with. We often run helter-skelter from the dawn to the dead of the night just to make ends meet. And with the general economic recess all over the world now, many have joined the endless rat race of ‘making it’ in life. Even most Christians of today are not exempted; we thus hear of unfortunate reports of young able bodied men dying in their 30’s and 40’s as a result of stress of diverse names.

These recent reports of increasing number of patients with high blood pressure and deaths from sudden heart attack have led to greater campaign from psychologists, physicians, motivational speakers, and the likes, on how to have a perfect short-term and long-term plan of one’s lives without any health risk. Although Christ did not warn against planning itself, He warned against what may naturally result from planning. Obviously, this tends to lead to worries and anxieties over even small matters. As our Saviour, Jesus Christ offers us a better way to plan our lives, quite different from what obtains in the world generally now.

In Matthew 6:19-34 Jesus Christ outlined the best way to plan our lives. He urges us not to worry about any of our needs; be it feeding, clothing, shelter or what tomorrow may bring. Inasmuch God values us more than the raven and lilies, it is guaranteed that our needs will be met (Philippians 4:19). Therefore, a Christian who stills goes about worrying about his needs is not much different from a pagan who does not believe in God (Matthew 6:32).

Each time worries and anxieties rise in our hearts, we are scripturally advised in I Peter 5:7 to cast all our cares on the Lord. We have a Father who is ever loving and faithful. He is always there to lift off those burdens from our neck and give us rest in return (Matthew 11:28-29).

Philippians 4:6 gives us a clue on how to cast our anxieties unto the Lord. Prayer and supplication with thanksgiving is the way to be free from all worries the world may put on us, we then receive peace that passes all human understanding.

We are not supposed to live our lives as children without a Father. Rather, than bombard our minds with needless worries let us take everything to God in prayer. We should live our lives as one day at a time, and make the most of each day as they come from the Lord.