DEVOTIONAL Header2023

Coronary Stents

July 12, 2022
06212022WEEKLYDEVO

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself…” (Matthew 6:34, NIV).

I was leaving my house for a grandson’s baseball game when I spotted a neighbor coming in from a run. He is a 40-year-old Christian high school teacher whose many children fill our cove with laughter each day. “How’d you do?” I asked. “Great! It was my best pace in a long time. First time I’ve run since my stent.” He paused and realized, “You didn’t know I had a stent put in three days ago. 80 percent blockage of my LAD. They found it somehow when they were checking out my thyroid. Never had a symptom.” “Praise God, what a miraculous find,” I said. “You need to tell your students.” “I did,” he answered, “Told them we can never be sure about tomorrow; that God is good, that we need to live each day the best we can.”

How many of us live with the assumed surety of tomorrow and fail to make the most of today? This young father is unlikely to make that mistake again.

I am the chief of sinners1 when it comes to missing the moment—the only moment I am guaranteed to live. I am constantly thinking of the next step, how to get past the present one to get there. Almost always the future steps I seek are good, but my dwelling on them frequently diminishes God’s plan for the moment.

If I am ever to show love, it is in the moment. If I am ever to listen to my wife, it is in the moment. If I am ever to nurture my children and grandchildren, I must hear them in the moment they choose to speak. If I am ever to enjoy the life God has given me, it is in the moment. If I am ever to touch the suffering, it is in the moment. If I am ever to hear God whisper, it is in the moment. If I am ever to worship, it is in the moment. If I am ever to witness for Christ, it is in the moment. If I am ever to trust God for my future, it is in the moment.

It seems that the value of life always lies in a moment I am running through to grab a future that is always one step ahead. So how do I change?

Dear God,
Help me focus on today and trust you to plan tomorrow.
Amen

11 Timothy 1:15

Weekly Devotions

Leaning Toward Jesus

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3, ESV).   He is tall, handsome, engaged, inquisitive and helpful. ...
Weekly Devotions

Tanzanian Football

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness….’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of ...
Weekly Devotions

A Test

“Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, ...
Weekly Devotions

The Way of All the Earth

“‘I am about to go the way of all the earth,’ he said. ‘So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord ...
Weekly Devotions

Linking Truth

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm ...
Weekly Devotions

Captain Jack’s Miracle Mack

“He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No,’ they answered. He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you ...
Weekly Devotions

SPN Numbers

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal ...
Weekly Devotions

The Flood

“…though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (1 Peter 1:6, NIV).   I tried ...