"LORD, make me to know my end
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am.”
-Psalm 39:4

The Lord’s general promise for all people is seventy years of life.  (Psalm 90:10).  Whether you live for seventy years like David, more than seventy or less than seventy, those years are lived out one day at a time.  The same is true of the Christian life – it is lived out one day at a time.  Whether you serve God five years or fifty years before you die, you would have served God one day at a time.  As  Heb. 12:1  says,  you are to  “run with [patient] endurance the race that is set before you.”  This patient endurance is not a passive endurance.

A year consists of three hundred and sixty-five days, and these days are lived out one day at a time.  If you are ten years old, you would have lived out 3,650 days, one day at a time.  If you are fifty, you would have lived out 18,250 days, one day at a time.  How did you live the last 365 days for God?  Can you say that with patient endurance,  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith”?  (2 Tim. 4:7). 

As we noted already, the Christian life is lived out one day at a time.  Every morning, when you rise up, you must resolve that by the grace of God and the strength He so richly supplies  (Phil. 4:13),  “I want to live for the glory of God today.”  Today, I do not want to  “walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.”  (Psalm 1:1).  Today, I want to delight in the law of the Lord and seek to obey Him in every aspect of my life and in all that I may face.  (Psalm 1:2;  Matt. 28:20). 

"All you have is today.  And so, seek to live each day as if that is all you have, today. Because the fact is, you do not have tomorrow."

Every night, before going to bed you should pause to reflect and ask yourself  :  did I fight the good fight today?  Did I finish the course today?  Did I keep the faith today?  Where did I stumble?  Where did I fall?  Did I seek for God’s promised forgiveness?  (1 John 1:9).  How can I correct and strengthen those weak areas?

As you close off this year and face the hopes, dreams, and uncertainties of the coming year, determine with James that all you have is today.  James wrote,  “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”  (James 4:13-16).  In other words, you do not have 365 days.  All you have is today.  And so, seek to live each day as if that is all you have, today.   Because the fact is, you do not have tomorrow.  So, with each day God graciously gives you, make a fresh resolve each morning, “Today, with God’s help, I must live for His glory.”  

Pastor Amresh Semurath