This Is The Day

This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

Do you hear the promise in these words? This day, the day you are living right now—this is the day the Lord has made. This is the day the Lord has designed, arranged, scheduled. Take joy in this day.

It’s easy to get stuck living in the past. Past hurts can infect present relationships. Past disappointments can diminish present joy. Past failures can cripple present opportunities. If we let it, the past can hold us in a viselike grip and hold our emotions hostage. The Creator, who knows our propensity for backward living, warns us to let the past go. Let him redeem it: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV).

On the other hand, we can use up today worrying about tomorrow. We can get so caught up in what-ifs and imagined scenarios that will likely never happen that the joy of today gets lost in the anxiety of tomorrow. If you were to graph what you have worried about compared to what actually happened, would you find that too much of your life is taken up uselessly by worry? Even if something you worried about did occur, did your worrying stop it or change it? How many of the Lord’s “todays” have you missed out on because you were projecting worry into tomorrow?

God has arranged today. It is full of promise, so get everything out of this day that you can. Yes, it will hold challenges, but God holds the power to face those challenges. It will hold numerous delights, but you may have to train your eye to see them. Recognize the promise that today is the day God has for you; he has packed it with evidences of himself and the potential for taking delight in his arrangements. This is the day the Lord has made. Enjoy it to the full.

Lord, I embrace this day and receive its promise. Keep me alert and present to its delights.

The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

Chuck Swindoll(1934–), American pastor and writer