A Happy New Year to each one of you. I wonder how you are all doing, whether these 6 days have been enjoyable or you are looking wistfully back at 2014 and wishing you were still there. Or are you looking ahead and hoping things will change. I'd like to talk to you about living in the present – living in the now.
I remember reading a little anecdote about a person who was transferred to a place that was entirely new to him – a new environment, a new culture, a new language. He was having a real difficult time trying to live in the present. One day he met a lady who gave him good advice. She said, "Always bloom where you are planted." In other words, don't just live for the future, live for the present. Look at what is happening around you and make it count. Sometimes we ship out of the present when things are not going too well. It could be that it's a bad day; maybe you are thinking that it's not going as it should and you are just waiting for the day to finish. Or maybe yesterday was a bad day and you're thinking that this week needs to get over. Or maybe it's a part of your life in which you are having difficulty and you say, "Well, this too shall pass and I'll just wait for something fresh to come my way."
I want to challenge you this morning because here's the truth about the present. However arduous and strenuous it may be, however difficult and stressful it may be, or however challenging and fretful it may be, God's promise for each one of us today is that He is with us. In our Scriptures, in a book called Hebrews, it says, "I will never fail you; I will never abandon you." Wonderful words from an Almighty God to each of us! What God is saying is – Listen, I'm not the kind of God who stands far away and watches benignly while you struggle through life. I made you and I will look after you. I have a responsibility to you. Now, He may not take us out of the situation, but He says to us, "I will give you My strength and My resources to allow you to rise above this particular situation or circumstance."
In another book of the Bible it says, "He says: My grace is all you need because My power works best in weakness." My grace, My strength, resources, wisdom are all that you need when you find yourself in a weak or difficult spot.
You may respond by saying, "But I do believe, God, but my situation is not changing." Gently, can I challenge you to think this through, because believing is really not enough? Believing by itself does not do anything. It must lead to trust. Believing in God must lead to trusting God. Allow me to illustrate. Over a hundred years ago, a man named Jean François Gravelet lived. He was better known as Charles Blondin and took the name from the owner of the circus at which he first worked. Blondin was a tightrope walker. He grew to much fame because he walked over the Niagara Falls, a distance of almost 1,100 feet, 116 feet above the water, from the US side to the Canadian side. He walked over this and had a great following. People admired and respected him.
Once when he finished, he came to the people and he asked, "How many of you believe that I can take a wheelbarrow across with me?" Everyone shouted and said, "We believe, we believe! Go ahead." And so he did. He took a wheelbarrow across and then he came back and said, "Do you believe that I can take somebody sitting in that wheelbarrow across?" And everybody said, "Yes you can. We believe in you." Then he held up his hand and said, "Who will be that person in the wheelbarrow?" And suddenly there was silence. There's a huge difference in believing what Blondin could do and trusting him with their own lives.
It's the same thing with God. You may believe in Him, but do you trust Him with your life? Maybe you've started this year with a good attitude, but the last five years haven't gone as planned. Now you're resigned to the year just going along with a que sera sera attitude, whatever will be, will be.
Dale Carnegie, famous for his book 'How To Win Friends & Influence People' once said, "One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." my friends, here's the question today for you and for me: Are we blooming where we are planted or have we shipped out of the present and living in a future that hasn't yet happened?
An unknown author said, "If you have one eye on yesterday, and one eye on tomorrow, you're going to be cockeyed today."
Somebody else said, "Having spend the better part of my life trying either to relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes is peace." Peace is in the present, not in the past or in waiting for the future.
Are you lacking peace this morning? Do you feel that you are caught between the devil and the deep sea, between the rock and a hard place? Have you shipped out of life? Today is a gift that God has given. That's why we call it the present. It's a present to us; it's a gift from God. Maybe you are wondering why God allows you to go through this difficult situation. Maybe He's refining you; maybe He's strengthening you.
I'm reminded of a little boy watching a butterfly trying to break through its cocoon. He felt sorry for the butterfly as he saw it struggle to release itself. He said to himself, "The next time I see this, I'm going to help the butterfly out of this struggle." Sure enough, the next time he saw a cocoon breaking open, he reached out and broke it and helped the butterfly come out. But, to his utter amazement, he saw that the butterfly couldn't move. The process of breaking out of the cocoon was what strengthened the butterfly's wings so that it could fly. When we are helped out of a process prematurely, we are not able to be all that God wants us to be.
That's the challenge for us this morning. Are you taking the present, allowing God to work through you however difficult the situation may be? Henry Longfellow says in this poem 'The Psalm of Life' –
Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Where are you this morning? Are you able to say – I want to make today count? Are we going to leave a worthwhile legacy for the next generation? Let's determine this morning, that we will let our footprints be etched on the sands of time. Let it not be said of us that we lived but we never lived. We died as though we had never lived. Let's make today count for something. Remember, God Almighty says to each one of us on this call today: "I will never fail you. I will never abandon you." And in moments of weakness today, through this week, through this year, when you feel you are out of your depth and the situation seems to overwhelm you, remember that He says, "My grace, that is My power, My resources, My wisdom will be made available to you, because in your weakness, My strength will be sufficient." This is the day that the Lord has made and He invites us to rejoice and be glad in it. If you believe in Him this morning, I invite you to trust Him; to trust Him with your life, with your situations and circumstances. Remember Blondin! Trust him with your life. That's my pray for each one of you for this day and for the new year as well.
May I pray with you? Almighty God, as we head out into this new year, Lord, help us to keep our eyes focused on You. Help us not just to believe in You, but to trust You with our lives, our situations, our circumstances, knowing that You have said, "I will always walk with you, I will never leave you," inviting us to enjoy the days that You give us. And may every will and purpose for each one of us find fulfillment in the days ahead. We ask this in Your precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
• Dale Carnegie quotes: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/dale-carnegie/
• Anonymous quotes: http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/liveinthemomentquotes.html & http://www.quotegarden.com/live-now.html
• Scripture quotes: Hebrews 13:5 & 2 Cor 12:9
"The Psalm of Life," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-psalm-of-life/
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