What will today bring?

Each morning we awaken to go about our daily activities not knowing what the day will bring into our lives. It may be success or it could be failure. Perhaps it will be joy and happiness or it may be pain and heartache. We just do not know what will befall us from one moment to the next. Like Gideon of old we sometimes cry out “Why”. Why this burden or distress? Why this hardship? Why this sickness? Why this death?  We cannot always give an answer except to say that the God we believe in, the God we serve, the God we trust and have confidence in does know the answer and so long as we love him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength we don’t have to be afraid of what the day will bring forth (Mark 12:30, 2 Tim. 1:12, Isa. 12:2).  Of a truth, we are weak, frail human beings and in order to successfully make it through each day we need the help of our God (Psalms 121:1-2). If we could not turn to our God for help in time of need we would be most miserable indeed and this life would be unbearable (Heb. 4:16, Phil. 4:6-7).

As a child of God, when the storm clouds gather, the wind blows and the rain comes down, we can lie down in peace and sleep the night away knowing that we have been building on solid rock (Psalms 4:8, Matt. 7:24-25). As a child my mother taught me to say a child’s prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take”. As a child these words did not have the meaning or impact on me that they do now. As I retire to my bed each evening they express one of my heart’s greatest desires. The words of this child’s prayer should serve to remind each us that if we are faithfully serving the Lord then we can calmly pillow our heads in sleep each night knowing that if we were to fly away to God’s celestial shore ere the morning comes, our souls would be safe in that land where we will never grow old.. Walking each day holding to God’s hand will enable us to bear whatever burdens we encounter during the day. Just a closer walk with him should be our goal each day as we press onward toward the heavenly abode (Phil. 3:13-14). In this earthly tabernacle we do groan under the burdens and cares that distress. I hear the words of the Psalmist as he says, “Seek the Lord and his strength: seek his face evermore” (Ps. 105:4). If we follow this precept when we become faint hearted and weary, I believe the Lord will impart to us the courage and strength that will lift us up and place us on higher ground (Isa. 40:31).  “Just a few more weary days and then I’ll fly away to a land where joys shall never end”. I trust and pray that all who now read these words know and believe the same thing.

Charles Hicks