This is something that I personally struggle with. I find it far too easy to pass my days planning what I will do next week, next month, or next year, and in the process I miss out on what God is calling me to do right here, right now!
Have you ever spent a whole Saturday online looking for the cheapest fares for a trip, only to realize later on that the few dollars you saved wasn’t even worth the 12 hours wasted? I have.
We have got to learn and actually put into practice the simple action of living for TODAY. Christ gives us grace not for what is going to happen tomorrow, but for what is actually happening EACH MOMENT. “Tomorrow will take care of itself”, Jesus said.
I have read or listened by tape to “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis at least 5 times. It is one of my favorite books because of its wealth of practical instruction for Christian living. Chapter 15 speaks on the subject of living for today, as opposed to always living ‘in the future’. Here are 2 short quotes from that chapter. Remember that in this book, Screwtape the demon is the one writing to his demon apprentice, Wormwood, about how to tempt Christians.
“He (God) does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. We do. His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him. But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future…..”
“We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered to them in the Present.”
