More than someday

At its heart, the plan of salvation is really quite simple: I am a sinner and I am separated from God.  God, in His great love, sent Jesus to earth to live a sinless life and to take the punishment for my sin.  He died and then God brought Him back to life.  Because Jesus was brought back to life, He conquered not only sin, but death.  If I believe all of this, and accept Jesus’ death and resurrection as payment for my sin, I will live forever in Heaven with God.

Simple, right?  If you’re anything like me, you’ve been hearing this for most of your life, you’ve probably prayed some version of the “Sinners Prayer” and in your mind, you’re all set.  And if you’re anything like me, you went to church yesterday, and you took Communion.  You remembered Jesus’ death and you thanked Him for saving you and taking care of your sins.  You thanked Him for the gift of eternal life, and then you went on with the rest of the service like you do every Sunday.

Our salvation through Christ ensures that we will live and reign forever with Him.  Our salvation gives us a future and a hope.  Our salvation gives us a Someday.

But as I sat in church yesterday with a little piece of Matzah in the palm of my hand and a sip of juice in a tiny plastic cup, I was reminded of this truth: My salvation gives me more than a Someday.  My salvation gives me a Today.  Today, because Jesus’ blood paid for my sin and removed the separation, I can rely on God for every moment.  Today, I can trust that He loves me and knows my every need. 

Today, because God sent His only Son to die for my sins and come back to life, I have a personal, intimate relationship with the God of the universe who hears every prayer I pray and who guides and ordains every moment of my life.  Because Jesus died for me, I have Today. 

Someday seems so far away, and in fact, the idea of “forever” hurts my brain, so I tend not to think about it much.  If I’m really honest, most of the time, I’m just not that excited about Heaven.  It’s such an abstract concept and I know so little about it, so I have a hard time giving it a lot of thought.  On the other hand, I think about Today an awful lot. 

But the same Savior who gives us Someday gives us Today.   The same plan of salvation that seals our future, carries us through every moment of every day until we get to our Someday.  And for that I am eternally grateful!

How often do you think about Heaven?  What does your salvation make possible for you today?

 

God’s will

I got a letter in the mail the yesterday.  Let me stop right there and dwell on that for just a moment:  A friend of mine had something she wanted to tell me so she wrote it down, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and put it in the mail.  She didn’t text me.  She didn’t post on my Facebook page.  She actually sent me mail.

I don’t do that for other people nearly enough…

Anyway, the point of the letter she sent was to share with me the following quote:

God’s plan for you is not past tense or hidden in the obscurity of the future.  It is continuous.  God’s will is always current.  It is for this you have been brought into the kingdom: to live this day, within its circumstances, in obedience.  ~Jeannette Clift George

That hit me pretty hard.  I had to think about it and mull it over for a while, but yeah, that got me. 

So often we spend a lot of time and energy trying to “discover” God’s will for our lives.  But what if, instead of using our time and energy on that, we used our time and energy in our current situation?  What if instead of waiting for our future to begin, we dedicated ourselves to living as if today is all we get? 

What if we really believed that God planned out every last one of our days before we were even born? (Psalm 139:16)

Perhaps we would be more content and at peace with our present circumstances.  Perhaps we would make the most of every day we have (and I don’t mean stuff as much into every day as possible and be completely exhausted at the end of the day…)

I don’t know what this would look like for you.  For me, I think it means that I need to stop wondering if I’m really where I’m supposed to be right now.  It doesn’t mean I’m just going to sit here until the next thing comes along.  I’m still going to plan for my future and I’m still going to look for opportunities. 

But I will stop resenting my current circumstances.  I will trust that God knows what He’s doing with my life.  I will rest in the knowledge that nothing I can do will ever sidetrack God’s plan for me because nothing I can do will ever take Him by surprise.

It means that I will decide “to live this day, in its circumstances, in obedience”, because when I do that, then I will be living in the center of God’s will.

So what does living in the present look like for you?   What benefits do you see in choosing to believe that you are exactly where God wants you right now?