The "How-to" of Abiding PT 5

Once we have taken our place as the creatures, next we resolve to live only one moment at a time. This is a most difficult accomplishment; we are so accustomed to thinking of yesterday and then tomorrow, not knowing that yesterday is past and tomorrow belongs to God. Do you see that there is nothing that we can do to provide for tomorrow—this moment is all that we have?

Nor is it good to look forward to tomorrow. Imagine that you are handed a book on how to build a computer and told to get started. The worst thing that you could do would be to turn to the last page and gaze at the finished product. Without following each step of assembly, you would easily be discouraged by looking at the completed computer, and would most likely quit before you began.

Imagine, too, a book that tells your whole life story. What would happen if you turned to the middle of the book and there read that you would lose a child in the future? Once you read such a thing, it would not be possible to concentrate on daily life, nor would you be able toenjoy the child today. This event in the future would steal every moment from you until the day that the child died. However, if you refuse to look ahead to that chapter, but rather take your life one page at a time, day by day and moment by moment lived in the presence of the Lord, you would find that when that day in the future comes, you would have all the grace needed to see you through the calamity. We creatures are too easily overwhelmed by any more than one day. "Therefore do not be anxious for to-morrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34).

Life is only to be lived one moment at a time, being faithful in each to experience His life. God will then give succeeding moments wherein we are abiding and full of His life, and these moments will soon turn into days, and finally into a lifetime of living out of the joy of the Master's presence. The future belongs to God! Ask only for the grace that you need today as you speak to the rebellious child, when you must work at a job you do not like, today as you desire to make your marriage a blessing, as you attempt to share with a lost one, and as you wish to live in an abiding relationship with our Lord.

These are the attitudes needed to experience the abiding life. Once we possess these, we will know that abiding does not depend on our strength, growth, feelings, failures, or success, but on His ability to place us in the Vine and keep us there. Each day can begin with this simple confession: "This day, Lord, I thank You that I am in You and You are in me. Thank You that no matter how I feel, I abide in You. Thank You, Lord, that it is not a position I must struggle to maintain, for You have put me there. This moment is all I will be concerned for. I accept my position of abiding with joy."

- Mike Wells