What Is In A Day?

This morning, the day is new. We look at the day ahead and ask, “What is in a day?” What lies ahead of us this day?

None of us know. I spoke with a friend yesterday, and he had no idea the events of his day until they happened. Total surprise how his day went from one thing to another unexpectedly. Sometimes, we do know what we believe is generally going to happen, but, of course, we do not know the exact details.

Here’s the good news: regardless of who you are or where you are, we each share a series of commonalities regarding our day ahead. For the Christ-follower, this is really good news. If we take time to remember a few of these things at the beginning of our day, it really benefits us; in fact, I promise it will make your day better. Notice how the prophet Jeremiah emphasizes the benefits of remembering a few of these key ideas of “What is in a day.” He writes, “This I recall to my mind and therefore I have hope” (Lam 3:21).

Here are a few of those key realities to remember:

God’s grace and mercy are new every morning.

Our God is a covenant faithful God. He expresses his loyal love to us daily through His mercy and grace. As we get up and going today, God’s faithfulness provides us a fresh, full helping of grace and mercy – enough to last us all day! Back to Jeremiah:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord. (Lam 3:22-26)

God loves us and that motivates our service.

The loyal love that provides great mercy and grace every morning also serves us in another way. As we stop to remember God’s love, it serves to motivate us to serve Jesus Christ and others today. The Apostle Paul describes how God’s love for us through Christ, as we remember and meditate on it, begins to influence us and control how we respond to the people and pressures in our day. In reflection of God’s love through Christ to us, we determine to live for Him and not for ourselves.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor 5:14-15)

We stand righteous in Christ, forgiven, and capable of honoring the Lord.

Because we have a relationship with God through Jesus, which we often called being saved, we now stand as righteous in Christ. We are forgiven of our sins and are intimately known by God. Because we are in Christ, we are no longer condemned; instead, we are now capable of honoring our wonderful Lord. Because of this possibility, we diligently seek to grow in our walk with the Lord.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. (2 Pet 1:3-7)

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:8-10)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Rom 8:1)

Both pleasant and unpleasant pressure awaits us and works for us to become like Jesus.

Without any doubt, in our day today, we will face pressure. We undergo pressures every day – both good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, positive and negative. Yet, these pressures are not without purpose. It is in these pressures we have the opportunity to grow into Christlikeness. As we respond faithfully to them, we are blessed and grow in our character. Where we fail, it provides us opportunities to learn faithfulness through renewed repentance and commitment to grow in our godliness.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:2-5)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Rom 8:28-29)

Regardless of the pressures we face, God limits them and provides us grace to be faithful through them.

God is faithful, and He will not allow any pressure we face today to go beyond the grace He provides to enable us to be faithful in it. In other words, God’s faithfulness guarantees the opportunity for your faithfulness. Just think about it, God limits the power of your pressures. He guarantees that all of your pressure fits in the category of common to mankind. But that’s not all! He also provides you the grace you need to be faithful in the pressure. Thus, God guarantees the pressure is not too great to overcome His grace, and He provides the grace necessary for you to persevere through the pressure-filled circumstance.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Cor 10:13)

Throughout the day, decisions have to be made to love God supremely and others sincerely.

Essentially, our day becomes a twenty-four opportunity to worship our God, seeking to live a Christ-exalting life as we walk in the Spirit. We walk with Christ. He goes with us everywhere we go. The Spirit indwells us. We live in God’s world and in His presence. We are not alone today. Instead, we are loved and enjoy the presence of the Lord (Rom 8:31-38; Gal 6:16-26). We worship our God as we love Him supremely, known as the first Great Commandment, and as we love our neighbors sincerly, known as the second Great Commandment.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:37-40)

The day provides opportunities to guard my heart above all guarding. Who or what reigns as my lord?

We strive then to walk in wisdom with God. We seek to remember God’s Word as we guard our hearts above everything else. Since all our thoughts, attitudes, emotions, words, and actions come from our hearts, we put the greatest effort into making sure that our hearts honor God. We seek to read, listen, watch, and consider those things that help fortify the heart toward Christlikeness rather than encourage drift.

My son, pay attention to what I say;
turn your ear to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the[c] paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil. (Prov 4:20-27)

In the process of the day ahead, I can choose to either honor and glorify God, or not. I can live according to God’s purpose for my life.

With all this truth fresh on our minds, we begin to tackle our day. Meditating on these key truths put us in a strong position. The better and more thorough we begin with these truths and choose to intentionally remember them throughout our day, the better will will do. Our day will be better; we will be blessed. Our lives throughout the day will reflect what we remember. We will be influenced by the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Therefore, with this in mind, we will strive to live for the honor and glory of our Lord. In other words, we will strive to glorify God by becoming more like Jesus Christ as we work through the various pressures of our day.

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Cor 5:8-10)

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. (Rom 13:11-14)

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)

So, armed with these things, we face our day.

Friends, with these things in mind – choosing to remember – we face our day. We do not know what all the pressures are in our day ahead; yet, we choose to remember these promises from God and will allow them to impact us throughout the pressure. And when the evening comes, we will lay our head down in gratitude for these truths, repenting where we need to for our day’s failures, but, more importantly, rejoicing in Jesus Christ, in Whom we live and have our being.

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