One day at a time, Lord Jesus

Jesus said, Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

So – have you broken any of your new year resolutions yet?

What a cynical question to ask! After all, I’m writing this on New Year’s Day! But let’s be realistic, we don’t need long to slip up, do we?

At risk of seeming smug and boasty I can honestly say I haven’t. Mind you, since I didn’t make any resolutions in the first place, that’s no great achievement, is it? To be honest, it’s just not something I do.

Good for you if you find it a helpful practice, but personally it seems a bit pointless. Given that that slip-up is bound to come, it seems to me that the person who makes new year resolutions is setting him or her self up for a fall (or, as an old friend used to say, “cruising for a bruising”). The first time that happens it may not seem to matter – “Oh, that was just a lapse!” – but it’s not long before a one-off lapse turns into a trend. And that can only lead to discouragement and a sense of failure.

Actually, I think I can find a better reason than that. The Bible assumes that the Christian life should be lived day by day, even hour by hour. If we want to make resolutions, let’s make them now, and for now, and leave the more distant future exactly where it belongs: in the future. Christian, grab hold of the moment!

In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus applied this principle to worry: “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself”. But surely it applies right across the board, and especially to the matter of living a Christ-like life: a life of child-like trust and determined obedience. There was a song some years ago with the line “One day at a time, sweet Jesus, one day at a time”, which sums it up very well.

I don’t deny that there can be problem with my attitude; very simply, I may end up never bothering to make resolutions at all, but just coast along lazily without thinking, just going with the flow. And if I do that, it can only mean that in truth I’m not really that serious about my relationship with God. In which case it’s time for a bit of serious self-examination. Am I, in practical terms, a Christian at all?

But if I can form the habit of “keeping short accounts with God”, as someone has described it, then that means I’m marching in time with God’s rhythm, for he himself, though he dwells in eternity, is a day-by-day, minute-by-minute God. One of the Bible’s most beautiful verses is Lamentations 3:23: “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…”

Yes, God is faithful to his children on a morning-by-morning, even a moment-by-moment, basis – and he invites us to be faithful and obedient to him in exactly the same way.

Paul’s way of putting this is especially helpful: “…live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh”. The particular word he uses for “live” conveys the idea of walking: “…walk by the Spirit”, or, even better, “Keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). The Bible as a whole loves this image of the Christian life as a walk; it takes us right back to Enoch (Genesis 5:21-14), of whom it is said twice that he “walked with God”. Could that be said of you and me?

God’s grace is not a commodity you can store up for a rainy day; it’s a gift to be drawn on now, because the Holy Spirit has taken up permanent residence in our hearts.

Focus for a moment on that little word “now”. We need to keep in mind that the only fragment of time which we actually possess or have any control over is… now. After all, as I write this, and as you read it, the past is only a memory and the future only a – well, what? a hope? a fear? a mystery? an anxiety? an unknown? Perhaps all of those things.

But for God even the future is now. And whatever it may turn out to be, we know that our heavenly Father is in control. As the saying goes, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future”.

Some witty person declared that the only new year resolution they were making was to give up making new year resolutions. Very funny.

But by doing just that you might rid your life of a lot of stress – as long, of course, as you replace it with keeping in lock-step with the Spirit, and learning to enjoy God and his love. That, be in no doubt, is what he wants for you.

Happy 2022!

Dear Father, I don’t find it too difficult to say the right things, even to have the right intentions. But carrying out those intentions is often a different matter. O Lord, I am so weak! Please help me to put my hand in yours day by day, and to walk with you, a child with their father. Amen.