Living One Day At A Time

LIVING ONE DAY AT A TIME

INTRODUCTION - It is said that a well- known evangelist was once preaching in Chicago on the first day of a series of Gospel meetings. At the end of the sermon, he felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to give people an opportunity to invite Jesus into their hearts. However, since the meetings were scheduled to go on for many days, he apparently decided to make that invitation the following day. That night, the great fire of Chicago swept through the town, causing much havoc, destruction and loss of lives. As a result, the evangelist decided that he would never again close a Gospel message without giving people an opportunity to invite Christ into their hearts and to receive His salvation and eternal life.

A lot can happen in one day! That may be why the TV series 24, was so popular.

Our sermon topic for today shows what I believe is a great stress-buster for handling life in today’s highly stressful environment. A lot of stress is caused by unfounded or maybe even real fears and anxieties that grip our hearts. That is possibly why the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”. That scripture brings me to our main thought for today’s message.

PROPOSITION – ‘Live one day at a time’, trusting God.

Today, I would like to share 4 thoughts around that simple, but meaningful topic of why we should ‘Live one day at a time’. They are:

1) BECAUSE WE CAN’T CONTROL TOMORROW

Proverbs 27:1 says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth”.

No one is assured of a tomorrow because God holds the times and seasons in His hand. Proverbs 16:9 tells us that “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps”. That is why we need to commit our today and all our future plans into God’s hands. In fact, tomorrow will not dawn for you and for me, one day! I don’t want to sound morbid, but for thousands living today, tomorrow may not dawn!

ILLUSTRATION – One of the saddest days of my life was when two of my friends came to see me at the church office. After chatting for a while, they left to have lunch together. After lunch, they came to see me once again for another friendly chat after which we said our goodbyes. Imagine my shock when the mother of one of them called me 2 hours later to say that her son had suffered a heart attack and passed away into the arms of Jesus. Thankfully, he was assured of his eternity since he had placed his faith in Jesus!

James warns us in 4:13-17, that we should refrain from boasting or any form of arrogance when making plans for the future. It is significant that he is referring specifically to businessmen making plans for their targets and business expansion. He then draws the attention of readers to the uncertainty of life and the uncertainty of tomorrow. I guess that’s something along the lines of what Jesus Himself was saying in the parable of ‘The Rich Fool’, found in Luke 12:16-20. The man in this parable was arrogantly planning for major expansion and savings, purely for selfish reasons. “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’ He said, with not a thought for either God, or his fellow-man. He received one of the strongest rebukes in the Bible as God said, “You fool”! He didn’t see tomorrow. Therefore, as James advises in James 4:15, let’s bring God into all our plans and pray for His will to be fulfilled in our plans for tomorrow. Only He can control our tomorrow. In Acts 18:21. Paul told the people of Ephesus, “I will come back if it is God’s will”.

What about your plans for tomorrow? Have you brought the Lord into them? Have you prayed for His will to prevail? Are you willing to let Him change your plans if needed? Of course, if God changes our plans, it will always be for our best. Only He has complete control of tomorrow.

2) BECAUSE THERE IS ENOUGH TROUBLE FOR TODAY

In Matthew 6:34, Jesus said. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,… Each day has enough trouble of its own”.

Not only can’t we control tomorrow, but we do not know what may happen today. In fact, some of you going through severe crisis situations may dread the dawning of a new day. I once read that there are two possible ways people could wake up in the morning. One group cheerfully says, ‘Good morning, Lord”, while the other says, ‘Good Lord, its morning’! Therefore, let’s place our todays in God’s hands for He is always in control. We are then assured of His providence, protection and provision.