“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’” Lamentations 3:22-24
This from Lynne Twist, founder of The Soul Of Money Institute,
“For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is, ‘I didn’t get enough sleep’. The next one is, ‘I don’t have enough time’. Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don’t have enough of…Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn’t get, or didn’t get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack…This internal condition of scarcity, this mindset of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life.”
There is something special about a day. A single day.
I began to appreciate a day as complete unto itself after watching my parents reach the end of their stories: The Story Of My Days. Truly our days are numbered. (Psalm 90:12) Each of us accumulates a finite amount to carry to the grave: Our portion. How many will you, or I, enjoy before crossing over Jordan to live in that new land called Eternity? 20,000? 30,000? By grace, 40,000? Every single one presenting itself as a gift with the fanfare of a never-seen-before sunrise.
God Almighty, not to mention Jesus, Who entirely represents Him (John 14:9 and Hebrews 1:1-3), endorsed the Daily Living Method. He famously provided heavenly bread for the children’s consumption in that land between Egypt and Canaan. Jesus said He was that bread (John 6), a hard thing for those faithful Jews to accept. Equally hard for us, apparently, given the way we live.
Pastor Jack Hayford gives wonderful reference to Jesus’ blood crying from the ground daily, the concept of which is a study in its own right. (Hebrews 12:24) Just think of it. In an unseen realm that ancient, physical blood still cries from Golgotha, “Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!” Every single day. It cries as loudly and forcibly as it did the day it was running down His side, His hands, His feet, His cross, to this unredeemed ground. Redeeming it afresh every day.
The children of Israel were instructed to discard the day’s uneaten manna at evening. It became spoiled and wormy overnight (Exodus 16:20). Kinda of makes one consider Paul’s exhortation not to hold on to anger overnight (Ephesians 4:26). It can turn to something nastier. It’s refreshing to discard the weights we tend to accumulate and face morning with childlike freshness (Hebrews 12:1). A day tends to have what is needed. There’s plenty of time and wherewithal to do whatever special or wonderfully ordinary thing the Lord has prepared for you and me to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). Maybe not enough for His agenda and ours, but, you know, ours often isn’t particularly smart anyway. If the day runs short, if it’s lacking, God has proven He is willing to stretch it to get the job done (Joshua 10:12). As Pastor Hayford says, the devil is the only one running out of time (Revelation 12:12).
I’m making an effort to adopt the Daily Living Method, and I must confess it feels real good.
Try it, you’ll like it.
The blood that Jesus shed for me, way back on Calvary;
The blood that gives me strength from day to day,
It will never lose its power.
It soothes my doubts and calms my fears,
And it dries all my tears;
The blood that gives me strength from day to day,
It will never lose its power.
It reaches to the highest mountain,
It flows to the lowest valley;
The blood that gives me strength from day to day,
It will never lose its power.