When you look back at your life, you wonder where it all went. It will go by you faster than you can keep up. There are two things you can do with your life.
1. Look at yesterday
2. Look towards tomorrow
Both are pivotal to your self development, as we experience TODAY, we can learn from yesterday’s experiences and draw on the past or we can adjust our attitude towards tomorrow, which is anything that is not behind us or things we are presently experiencing.
Essentially there is NO today, only the past and the future. We must apply our virtues and learn from our vices.
But there is a NOW. We apply the lessons learned in life to the future but experience them in the NOW. God describes himself as the “I AM”. He is the very embodiment of the present. He wants us to call on him to live a life centered around the ideas of peace, hope, and mercy.
I have peace in my life, knowing no matter what disasters or trials I am experiencing, Christ’s peace is left with me.
I have hope that no matter how depressed this life gets, I can hope the the one who has taken my depression upon himself and given me hope for a future, an eternal home, peace away from suffering.
I have mercy that flows and is new every morning. I do not hold grudges or go to bed angry because God’s grace is new every morning. Freedom from the bondage of sin. I am free to live a new life in Christ. If I sin, I have forgiveness. What a wonderful feeling.
I take these three with me in the present.
Peace, Hope, and Mercy. These tools of Christ’s love poured out on the cross for me and for you are gifts from God, nothing earned or bought. God drops you off a dock and you are drowning. You can’t swim or even grab a hold of a self-righteous ring of rescue. You are powerless.
Christ alone has the power and works forgiveness in the hearts of sinners wherever they may be in life. Whether living in the past or tunnel vision of the future preoccupies, Christ has a time and place for forgiveness to work.
Peace, Hope, Mercy…
Happy Reformation Day (31st) and ALL Saint’s Day (1st)
