Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:34

 

How you speak two words tells a great deal about your outlook on life‑‑two very important words that are often spoken at the beginning of the day.  Those two very revealing words are, “ANOTHER DAY.”  Think for a moment.  When you awake in the morning and say, “Another day…,” how do you say it?  The inflection of your voice reveals a lot about your attitude.

Think how a person in prison would say those words as he sees the rays of the sun peeking between the bars of his dim prison window.  “Another day,” he says, meaning another weary, monotonous day.

Can you hear the loneliness of those words as they come from the lips of a woman who lies flat on her bed in a hospital with another day of suffering in store for her?  The businessman opens his doors in the morning with the words, “Another day,” meaning another business day with customers, sales, problems and people.  How different would be the emotions of a bride, who on her honeymoon wakes and reaches for the hand of her lover.  She begins the first day of married life saying, “Another day….”

Pause for a moment and audibly repeat those two words, “Another day…”  How do they sound to you?  One person complains that he lives five blocks from the bus station and has to walk that distance each day.  Contrast that with the joyful words of a boy crippled for years, who refuses to accept the confinement to a wheelchair, and finally shouts, “Today, I walked 12 steps.”

One person complains because he has two feet which carry him five blocks to the bus station; another rejoices because his crippled legs found strength to carry him twelve steps.  Perhaps we should be reminded of the man who said, “I complained because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”

Another day.  How will you use it?  But really this is not just another day. THIS IS TODAY, and today is the most important day of your life. It’s the only day in your life that you can do something about.  Just for today, try to live completely in the present.  Don’t try to tackle all of life’s problems; just face the problems of today.  Just for today, strive to do God’s will, remembering that the failures of yesterday are behind you.  When you awaken in the morning learn to say, “God, walk with me today.  Lord, take my hand and be my companion.  Help me to live today as though it were the last day of my life.”

Just for today, try to be happy.  Abraham Lincoln said that most folks “are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  Just for today, try to say something kind to everyone you meet.

Finally, live today as though you would meet your Maker at the end of the day.  The Bible emphasizes the importance of today.  Paul writes, “Today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).  If you have no peace in your heart, today reach out to a loving Savior, and invite Him to come into your life and to give you the assurance that if you met God at the end of the day, you would not be ashamed to call Him Father.  As Esther Baldwin York said, “Life is a series of todays which so quickly turn into yesterdays that some of us spend our time looking regretfully backward.  Still others, through worry or procrastination, are always waiting for tomorrow.  In either case, there is the real danger of overlooking a very important day‑‑TODAY.  For this is the place and the time for living.”

 

Resource reading: Matthew 7:7-14