Written by Tony Stith
One of my favorite music groups as a kid was the Doobie Brothers. One song of theirs I liked in particular was titled "Minute by Minute". I never really thought about what the song was about, I just liked the beat...Minute by Minute by Minute by Minute...I just keep holding on....
Many people don't really know how to live minute by minute do they? Although there is some merit in looking and planning for the future, many of us tend to spend too much of our time there. We're constantly looking ahead to the next big event, racing to and fro across the face of the earth, checking our watches and marking our calendars. Precious little time is spent enjoying the moment, being 100 percent in the present.
Even though it might be the byproduct of living in our frenzied, fast food society, I don't think it's a healthy one, and certainly not one conducive to personal or spiritual growth. In fact, I would guess that all of our rushing ahead to be somewhere else or to do something else must at times frustrate God.
In Psalms 46:10 He tells us to "Be still and know that I am God."
Being still is a tall order for a lot of us. But God wants us to more than just occasionally step out of our frenzied pace and focus on the here and now. He's saying, I have something I want to teach you right now, in this moment...so stop running around doing and planning all of these things you think are so important and be still...take the time to know me...to reflect on the creation I have made, to enjoy the family I have given you, and the relationship you have with Me. Be still and know that I am God. You can't very well do that if your constantly racing ahead at light speed.
So maybe we can take a life lesson from that Doobie brothers song...well, at least the chorus. It's the only part I remember anyway. Minute by Minute by Minute by Minute.....
A Disastrous Miracle
In his book titled “It Is Toward Evening”, Vance Havner tells the story of a small town that made it’s living entirely from growing cotton. It was not a great living; nevertheless, it was a living. Then calamity struck as the boll weevil invaded the community, destroyed the economy, and threatened to ruin everyone. The farmers were forced to switch to peanuts and other crops that eventually brought them greater return than they would ever have made by raising cotton. Ultimately, what they thought was a disaster became the basis for undreamed of prosperity. To mark their appreciation, they erected a monument-to the boll weevil. To this very day in that little southern town, that monument stands as a celebration of that disastrous miracle.
Too often we want to forget painful memories…tribulations in our life, don’t we? We want to move on to good times and leave the past behind.
I think one mistake we in the Christian world make is to focus only on all of the ways we’ve been blessed while we gloss over the trials and tribulations that have been visited upon us. But God doesn’t want us to do that. He wants us to recognize the trials that we suffer as blessings in themselves…events that serve to prepare us for greater service to him.
1 Pet 5:10 tells us “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
God wants us to mark the path of our growth. He wants to use our disasters to produce miracles in our lives. The suffering that we endure often serves a far greater purpose than the good times that come our way. The blessings that come as a result of His purpose being fulfilled are eternal.
Obviously it’s difficult to pretend we enjoy going through hardship. I’m sure the farmers in that small town weren’t having a good time watching the boll weevils eat their livelihood. But if they could have seen the end of the story, the prosperity that would ultimately come out of disaster, they would have no doubt had reason to rejoice while the boll weevils were feasting.
As God’s children we do know the end of the story, don't we? In the midst of trouble, in the midst of hardship, we know that God is working out His plan. We don’t need to wait for that miracle to be completely fulfilled to rejoice. We can erect a monument of gratitude in our lives to daily express appreciation to Him for his deliverance from trials and the incredible miracle that He is accomplishing in us through His Son.
"I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word." Psalms 119:15 - 16
Too often we want to forget painful memories…tribulations in our life, don’t we? We want to move on to good times and leave the past behind.
I think one mistake we in the Christian world make is to focus only on all of the ways we’ve been blessed while we gloss over the trials and tribulations that have been visited upon us. But God doesn’t want us to do that. He wants us to recognize the trials that we suffer as blessings in themselves…events that serve to prepare us for greater service to him.
1 Pet 5:10 tells us “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
God wants us to mark the path of our growth. He wants to use our disasters to produce miracles in our lives. The suffering that we endure often serves a far greater purpose than the good times that come our way. The blessings that come as a result of His purpose being fulfilled are eternal.
Obviously it’s difficult to pretend we enjoy going through hardship. I’m sure the farmers in that small town weren’t having a good time watching the boll weevils eat their livelihood. But if they could have seen the end of the story, the prosperity that would ultimately come out of disaster, they would have no doubt had reason to rejoice while the boll weevils were feasting.
As God’s children we do know the end of the story, don't we? In the midst of trouble, in the midst of hardship, we know that God is working out His plan. We don’t need to wait for that miracle to be completely fulfilled to rejoice. We can erect a monument of gratitude in our lives to daily express appreciation to Him for his deliverance from trials and the incredible miracle that He is accomplishing in us through His Son.
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"I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word." Psalms 119:15 - 16
The Past: Learning from it without Living in it
Someone once said that in life we have two choices. We can learn from the past or be doomed to repeat it. It’s good advice. Individually and collectively we must learn the lessons of history if we are to avoid the traps and pitfalls into which others before us or perhaps we ourselves have fallen. It’s advice, though, that should be taken with caution for the line between learning from the past and being a victim of it is thin indeed.
We may know of someone for who past experience has soured current aspects of their life. It may be the person who, because of one or several failed romantic relationship, has exiled themselves to a life of loneliness, refusing to risk further emotional trauma. Or it could be the person who having been raised in an abusive childhood situation determines to never bring children of their own into such a potentially painful world.
Whatever the hurts and injustices we've suffered or witnessed in the past, living in it rather than using it as a tutor to guide ourselves or others to a more successful future, makes us its victim.
I believe that we as Christians, perhaps more than most, have a tendency to fall into this trap. We as a group have very sensitive noses for justice. We are keenly aware of right and wrong and we have a definite desire to see righteousness prevail and evil punished. Although a desirable quality in most cases, this sensitivity has the potential to work against us. In a world where the evil too often emerge victorious and injustices are a daily occurrence, our spirits can easily become embittered, cynical and negative. Allowed to linger, this fixation on the injustices of the world can ultimately serve to rob us of our joy and inhibit our growth forward. We become victims of the past rather than its students.
In Philippians 3:12 through the example of Paul we are admonished to forget those things which are behind and reach forward to those things which are ahead.
In Matthew 10:16 Jesus tells us “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
Taken together, these passages encourage us to not let the past cripple us but rather to gain wisdom from the injustices we or others have witnessed or experienced, and use that wisdom to move forward in a positive, productive direction.
God wants us to look ahead to Him as the Author and Finisher of our faith and toward what He has in store for us. We can’t do that if we are constantly obsessed by what’s back over our shoulder.
Yes, it’s true. Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. We shouldn’t ignore the past. Let’s learn from it, gain wisdom because of it, but not be victimized by it. It’s okay to visit there once in awhile but it’s definitely not a place in which we should live.
"I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word." Psalms 119:15 - 16
We may know of someone for who past experience has soured current aspects of their life. It may be the person who, because of one or several failed romantic relationship, has exiled themselves to a life of loneliness, refusing to risk further emotional trauma. Or it could be the person who having been raised in an abusive childhood situation determines to never bring children of their own into such a potentially painful world.
Whatever the hurts and injustices we've suffered or witnessed in the past, living in it rather than using it as a tutor to guide ourselves or others to a more successful future, makes us its victim.
I believe that we as Christians, perhaps more than most, have a tendency to fall into this trap. We as a group have very sensitive noses for justice. We are keenly aware of right and wrong and we have a definite desire to see righteousness prevail and evil punished. Although a desirable quality in most cases, this sensitivity has the potential to work against us. In a world where the evil too often emerge victorious and injustices are a daily occurrence, our spirits can easily become embittered, cynical and negative. Allowed to linger, this fixation on the injustices of the world can ultimately serve to rob us of our joy and inhibit our growth forward. We become victims of the past rather than its students.
In Philippians 3:12 through the example of Paul we are admonished to forget those things which are behind and reach forward to those things which are ahead.
In Matthew 10:16 Jesus tells us “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
Taken together, these passages encourage us to not let the past cripple us but rather to gain wisdom from the injustices we or others have witnessed or experienced, and use that wisdom to move forward in a positive, productive direction.
God wants us to look ahead to Him as the Author and Finisher of our faith and toward what He has in store for us. We can’t do that if we are constantly obsessed by what’s back over our shoulder.
Yes, it’s true. Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. We shouldn’t ignore the past. Let’s learn from it, gain wisdom because of it, but not be victimized by it. It’s okay to visit there once in awhile but it’s definitely not a place in which we should live.
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"I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word." Psalms 119:15 - 16
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