“This is the day which the Lord has made…” Psalm 118:24
Dear Ones:
We are apt to think of a day as a time frame of twenty-four hours in which we live, work, carry on with the duties and blessings of life. However, from God’s standpoint, it is of far greater significance, value, and importance. In the creation of the world, we find that certain things were done by God on a certain “day,” a period of time that He designated. The significance of that period of time was not so much in what was accomplished, but in the revelation of the ONE who accomplished it. It was what God conceived, put into action, and accomplished, that speaks volumes of Who and What He forever IS. We see revealed in every “day” the wisdom, beauty, glory, and goodness of God, in a most remarkable, and unfathomable manner. But, how does this apply to us, for we are NOT God?
Let’s take of a look at the Lord Jesus, our example and the perfect “redeemer” of time. We never see Him in a hurry and late, and yet, the demands upon His time and energies were phenomenal. The Apostle John writes of Him, “…And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” (Jn. 21:25) Here is the man Christ Jesus, anointed and filled with the Spirit, in the “business” of His Father, using every day as an opportunity and obligation to accomplish the will of God, and finish His work. Every day was an “eternal day,” because in the records of heaven, every thing was written, recorded, and will be forever remembered and proclaimed, to the glory of God. Every day was an “eternal day” because in that period of time, God by the Spirit worked in and through the Lord Jesus. Now He does so in and through His church, His body, and every member of that body. Do we live in this perspective, where our prayer should be that Christ should be “…all the world to me, and all my heart be love.” But, HOW are we thus to live? How are we to buy up the time, without anxiety and fear, or even, timidity? The answer is found again in both the example and essence of Christ.
When Christ embarked on His ministry, He was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. This was not for sin, but to signify the commitment of Christ to His mission. In some small way, it was a picking up off the ground the mantle, as Elisha did, to embrace and lay hold of, the mission, means, and manner, by which He would glorify God…every day. In speaking to His disciples, the Lord told them: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) Jesus speaks of DAILY bread, provision, in the Lord’s prayer. Here He speaks of a DAILY cross, whereby we embrace His work, and this great and wonderful salvation to which we are called. With regard to the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost, the Lord would speak of His presence ALWAYS being with the disciples, in particular with regard to the union that would exist between Him and the believer by the Spirit. So that, there is a daily call to “come,” “follow,” and “believe and obey.” But with the calling comes all that there is IN CHRIST, according to His word, to be appropriated daily, even moment by moment. CHRIST IS THE FULFILLMENT OF ALL HIS DEMANDS. It is as He FILLS every day, by filling our hearts, leading us, providing all for us, that every day can be an “eternal” day, for “…what is done BY Him will last.”
Dear Father, enable us to have Your perspective of time, and to be so led by Thee, that we may use it wisely, and effectively. We thank Thee, not only for the calling to follow Thy Son, but for all the provision IN Christ in order to do it. Fill us again and again with Thyself by the Spirit, and with the knowledge of Thy will, enabling us to “buy up” the time, and accomplish that which You would have us to trust You for…for Your glory and honor. We thank Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad