One Day at a Time!

Matthew 6: 34

In a book entitled, Celebrate the Temporary, the author, Clyde H. Reid, speaks to all of us
about the peril of living either in the past or in the future, and totally, missing the present.
He encourages us to seize the potential of each present moment and each contemporary experience,
if we would live life to the full, and if we would make a significant contribution with our lives.
Many of us live under the crushing burden of accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows.
To do so disqualifies us and robs us of the opportunity to really live in the present.

Someone has said that there are two days that we should eliminate from our calendar.
One of those days is yesterday, the other is tomorrow.
We must beware lest we let yesterday or tomorrow hinder us from doing our best today.

An Indian dramatist, Kalidasa, writes in a poem:
"Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence;
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of achievement.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn."

Most of us tend to put off living in the present in order that we might worry about the future.
All of us have been guilty at times of embittering the present by filling our minds with regrets
concerning the things that have happened in the past.

Dr. William Barclay in his book, Daily Celebration, states:
"Nearly all the great men have been haunted by the sense of the shortness of time
and of the uncertainty of time... as we grow older, and as time grows ever shorter,
there are certain things that we should remember.

We should never leave things had finished in case they are never finished.
We should carefully choose what we are going to do -- for there is no longer time to do everything,
and we should do the things which really matter.
We should never come to the end of the day with a quarrel or a breach between us or any
of our fellowmen -- for it may be that the quarrel will never be mended and the breach will never be closed.

We only get so much time, and when that is finished we cannot get any more.
None of us knows how much we are going to get.
If there is something to be learned, we must learn it now; for the longer we put it off,
the harder it will be to learn it. Do it now!"

W. Clement Stone has said that "Do it now" is one of the great self-motivators.
Those who have achieved success in life have learned to do it now rather than
surrendering to procrastination.

The Stewardship of Time

• Time is lent to us to be used in God's service.
  We must be very diligent in the proper use of time.
• Time is precious.
  We cannot kill time without injuring eternity.
  We should snatch it, seize it, use it, and enjoy every minute of it.
• Time is short.
• Time is passing swiftly.
  The horses of time gallop downhill and the farther they gallop the faster they go.
• Time is uncertain.
  The most certain thing is the uncertainty of time.

• Thank you God for the gift of life for another day.
• Thank God for the gift of salvation that has come to us through Jesus Christ.
• Thank God that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.
• Thank God for the members of your family.
• Thank God for the privilege and ability to work.
• Thank God for friends.
• Thank God for what He is going to do in your life this very day.