As your days—so shall your strength be! Deuteronomy 33:25

One of the secrets of happy and beautiful life, is to live one day at a time. Really, we never have anything to do any day—but the bit of God’s will for that day. If we do that well—we have absolutely nothing else to do.

Time is given to us in days. It was so from the beginning. This breaking up of time into little daily portions means a great deal more than we are accustomed to think. For one thing, it illustrates the gentleness and goodness of God. It would have made life intolerably burdensome if a year, instead of a day—had been the unit of division. It would have been hard to carry a heavy load, to endure a great sorrow, or to keep on at a hard duty—for such a long stretch of time. How dreary our common task-work would be—if there were no breaks in it, if we had to keep our hand to the plough for a whole year! We never could go on with our struggles, our battles, our suffering—if night did not mercifully settle down with its darkness, and bid us rest and renew our strength.

We do not understand how great a mercy there is for us in the briefness of our short days. If they were even twice as long as they are—life would be intolerable! Many a time when the sun goes down—we feel that we could scarcely have gone another step. We would have fainted in defeat—if the summons to rest had not come just when it did.

We see the graciousness of the divine thoughtfulness in giving us time in periods of little days, which we can easily get through with—and not in great years, in which we would faint and fall by the way. It makes it possible for us to go on through all the long years and not to be overwrought, for we never have given to us at any one time—more than we can do between the morning and the evening.

If we learn well the lesson of living just one day at a time, without anxiety for either yesterday or tomorrow, we shall have found one of the great secrets of Christian peace. That is the way God teaches us to live. That is the lesson both of the Bible and of nature. If we learn it, it will cure us of all anxiety; it will save us from all feverish haste; it will enable us to live sweetly in any experience. J. R. Miller

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. –Matthew 6:34

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9

One of the most common questions people ask me is “How do I know God’s will for my life?” Oftentimes, when we ask this question, we want to attach the answer to an event or location. God has purposed something far greater for our lives than simply an address or an event. His purpose is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son.

Romans 8:28-29 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

The words “he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son” indicate that God has a predetermined plan for your life. His purpose is that you would become more like His Son, Jesus Christ, as you walk in His Spirit according to His Word.

Mature Christians, who recognize the sovereign hand of God in their lives, are able to have a better context for the trials and setbacks they face. They are able to see God’s hand at work in every situation and realize that He is working in them so that He then might work through them.

God has called us according to His purpose. The Bible says that our lives no longer belong to us because we have been purchased by the Lord to live according to His purpose. The most miserable Christians are those who are living according to their own will and trying to get God to agree with their plans. I thank God that He has a purpose for each life, and that because of His purpose, each of us may give glory and honor to Him today! –Dr. Paul Chappell

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.–Matthew 28:5-6

George Bernard Shaw, while a great writer and playwright, was well-known as an atheist in his day. His writings contain an undertone of rebellion against God and rejection of Scriptural teaching. He championed the socialistic and humanistic causes of his day. Yet at the end of his life, as he looked back on all he had fought for, he had this to say: “The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.”

Shaw’s hope for Europe had been placed in a dying and corrupt belief, and Shaw realized that his life had been spent in vain. He had hope in his atheistic beliefs. He had hope that his view of the world was correct. But as he came to the end of his life, he realized his hope was misplaced.

With the world events that surround us daily, life almost seems without hope. World leaders becoming more hostile, the economy’s downturn, and the downplay of our alliance with Israel are all reasons some people have become worried. But as Christians, we have hope even in the darkest of times.

Look at— our passage today, “And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Christ died on Calvary for our sins, but He conquered the grave and arose three days later.

Our God is alive! Other religions point to a leader, but also point to his grave. Our leader, the Lord Jesus Christ, has an empty tomb, proving His ability to conquer even death. There is no circumstance, activity, change of events, or sudden disaster that takes God by surprise. He has control over all and has the ability to conquer any situation that comes up.

Our hope is alive today because of the empty tomb. No matter how dark things become, how bleak a situation looks, or how troubling the times are, we can remain hopeful because our home is not here on earth but with Christ in Heaven.

That cool, crisp morning that Christ rose from the grave was the same morning our hope became alive. Because our God is alive, we know He is in control of everything. We know His promises are true, and we know that He is coming again to take us home to Heaven one day.

Where is your hope? Is it in a national leader, a global system, or a certain belief? The only hope that is alive today is hope in Jesus Christ. No other hope will be able to withstand the darkest of days in your life. Take time today to remember your hope in God. Remember the next time someone complains about the events in the world that your hope lies with an unchanging, immovable, all-powerful God who has everything under His control. (From, “Daily in the Word”)

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:30-31

At this time of year, a lot is heading downward.

Leaves are falling. Temperatures are dipping. And with this coming Sunday’s time change, the sun will be setting a little earlier. For many, these changes bring about depression, lethargy, fatigue and other problems. In its most serious form, it adds up to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

But symptoms such as these don’t occur just in the fall or only at times when there is less sunlight. In their lesser form, these feelings can come about quite easily in day-to-day living.

Like when an unkind word from a co-worker crushes your spirit and sets the rest of the work day into a tailspin. Should you be surprised? Or when your best friend is the one who is getting married or having a baby or got a promotion. And you got . . . nothing.

Or perhaps you’ve said “yes” to organizing and leading every church committee, every parent-organized school event, the community Bible study and your neighborhood’s monthly block party.  Your mind is mush, your body is shutting down and you have nothing left to give.

See? We can quickly sink to the depths of despair in our spirits or become quickly fatigued taking care of everything and everyone else and not ourselves. We’re tired and weary, stumbling and falling. And . . . we’re human, after all.

But thankfully, when we are feeling weighted down, the Lord will help us to soar. He is the one who raises us up. And not any twelve-step plan, self-help book or audio tape series. ——we must look to him and his Word first for direction in how we should live.

David was a man who understood this. Many passages in the book of Psalms read like his personal diary of sorts and record the times when he felt down and sought the Lord.

He had it right when he said in Psalm 62:5-8: “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be  moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times ye people, pour out y our heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.

When we focus on our circumstances and on what is or isn’t happening in our lives, we will feel down. Like David, we need to go to the One who will lift us up. It is in God alone that we will rise above and find our rest.

What is bringing you down? Is the Lord asking you to make a change in your life? Is it time to simplify in some area? Take some time this weekend for quiet reflection and seek God’s direction for what He would have you do.(By Laura MacCorkle, Crosswalk.com Senior Editor)

...be thou an example of the believers…–1 Timothy 4:12

Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies conducted a survey among 750 Muslims who had converted to Christianity. The survey showed that the strongest motivating factor behind conversion was seeing Christians practice what they preached.

The results of this survey and others like it are both an encouragement and a challenge. God gives us the privilege of seeing our lifestyle make a difference to others. Christian integrity means representing God well, speaking his truth and his love. If that seems hard to do, it is—on our own. Yet Christ, “the hope of glory,” is in us to love others as Jesus would love them.–(Dr. Gary Chapman)

These folks aren’t the only ones who see this as a problem. One missionary said, “The chief obstacle to the spread of Christianity is not Hinduism, nor Buddhism, but the rotten behavior of people who call themselves Christian.” I believe he is right.

Dr. Robert Speer wrote:”After thirty years of leadership in missionary work, it is my conviction and conclusion that the greatest missionary problem is the failure of Christian people to live up to their profession.” That my dear friend is a shame! To think that we ourselves are the “chief obstacle to the spread of Christianity” should drive us to our knees in repentance. God forbid that our poor example make the glorious gospel repulsive to those in need of salvation. We ought to be better than that!

Living with integrity is one of the most important things we can do to draw others to Jesus. That doesn’t mean we live perfect lives. We will fail, and we’ll need to ask forgiveness of God and others. But even in our failings, we can reflect an authenticity that leads others to a perfect God.(Dr. Gary Chapman)