Happy February 1st, 2016!! We have already completed one month of the new year! Best of all for my household, this is the month our little sweet baby girl is due! She could be making her appearance within the next couple of weeks! It's bitter sweet for me. On the one hand I am excited to see her, touch her, smell her, kiss her, hug her, and just love her to life! On the other hand, I am going to miss her being so literally attached to me, taking her everywhere I go, protecting her on the inside of me, and feeling her little lovely movements all through the day and night. The miracle of conception, growth, and birth is absolutely baffling. To know a seed grew inside of me into a human being is astonishing. There was once nothing in my womb then God placed His hand on it and created life! How amazing is that?! It has been the most wonderful experience. Even with the heart burn and achy back and hips. I am honored that God chose me to go through this experience and birth his creation into earth!
With all of that being said, I wanted to share with you today what has been in my heart. Having a baby or going through any major life change can be exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time. You begin to think of all of the things that will need to be taken care of, how you will be able to take care of it all, the time you have to take care of it all, if you have the resources to do what you need to do, etc. It can become extremely overwhelming and cause you to begin to worry. I can say for myself, I have not been doing a good job of keeping my worry at a minimum. I have even questioned God about His decision to give us this assignment when things have not been adding up enough to give me the confidence that we will be able to carry it out. Yep, I questioned God on His decision. Like He doesn't have a plan already set in place. It can be hard to just simply trust, follow, and obey Him when you have absolutely no idea, no clue, not even a hint of where things might be headed.
I can say for myself, that I do a lot of thinking about the future. I have thought about things that are so far away such as, giving my daughter the best childhood, taking her on trips and allowing her to see things I did not. I have even thought about how we will pay for her college tuition. The child has not even seen the light of day yet and I am already trying to figure out how much money we will need to save for her college expenses! Crazy, right? I have gotten myself all worked up on all of these future things, I almost lost sight of what is happening today. I had allowed so much worry and anxiety to overtake me, it almost took away the joy of the current moment.
Jeremiah 29:11 (a scripture I have used many times through this blog) clearly shows us that God plans to give us welfare and peace and He does not have any evil plans for us, This is what He spoke to Jeremiah and we know that God is not a respecter of persons, so if He promised this to Jeremiah, we can hold to the same promise for ourselves even though the scripture was not speaking directly to us. His thoughts and plans are to give us hope in our final outcome. That means, we should look forward to God's plans for our lives. The decisions He makes for us will always have a positive outcome because it's in his plan! As long as we stay within His will, we will be okay. There is no reason to worry. His plans are way better than our own plans for our lives.
I am also constantly taken back to another set of scriptures at this time in my life as well; Matthew 6:25-34. In all my worrying about what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, in 18 years; I am reminded of this passage. I have been reminded by the Holy Spirit Himself, my wonderful husband, and again through God's divine word spoken through our pastor. The first two times, I was encouraged and kind of gave it an, "Okay God, I see what you're saying. I shouldn't worry. You will take care of us as long as we seek you first, I get it". The third time, I believe the light came on. What stuck out the most was the SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Seek His way of doing things. Follow His leadership. It is a cause and effect situation. Follow God's way then all the things will be added to you. I do my part and God does His part. The question arose, "Have I been seeking Him first? Am I cooperating with God so that He can do what He has promised?"
A lot of times, I speak for myself again, when things don't look too good worry comes first. I attempt to come up with a plan on my own to make sure things are taken care of. I begin to seek earthly ways of getting what I need when I need it. After all of my attempts fail, then I start asking God for help. I start crying out and wondering why He seems not to be there for me. Anxiety begins to take over and I wonder if God is even listening or seeing what I am going through. Clearly, that does not qualify as cooperation with God and what He instructs me to do in His word. Matthew 6:34 tells us not to worry or be anxious about tomorrow because tomorrow will have it's own worries. God gives us enough grace for one day at a time (summarized). Hence, the title of this post.
Being confident in the fact that God's plan for us is something we should look forward to and knowing that if we cooperate with His word, stay in His will, and follow His lead He is going to give us every single thing that we need; we can relax and live in the current moment. Focusing on one day at a time is sure to bring your stress and anxiety levels way down. Use the grace supplied to you for the day and enjoy peace in knowing that God's got you. If you accepted the gift of salvation and are living your life for Him, He is responsible for taking care of you, You have been adopted into His family, His Kingdom (Ephesians 1 and 1 Peter 2:9-10). As His son/daughter, we represent Him. I know as an earthly mother, I don't want my child begging other people for food, looking like she has no one home taking care of her. That would make me look like an unfit mother. Just imagine how it would make God look if we are calling Him our father and living in His royal household but we don't appear to be taken care of as a King's kid would. That's would bring Him no glory and God takes pride in His children.
Hopefully, today's post will encourage you to stop worrying about tomorrow, next week, next month, or 18 years from now and give you the strength to focus only on the day at hand. You have grace for today. Meditate on Matt. 6:25-34 (Message Version). Cooperate with God, trust his plan, and hold him to his word. He keeps His promises and He has to deliver! Take it one day at a time. Enjoy peace. Enjoy the privilege of knowing that you can relax because there is nothing new under the sun and God's got you covered! Don' miss out on a great moment because you are too far ahead in a future you have no grace for yet. Let the sunshine bless you, or the beautiful snowfall, or even the refreshing rain. Thank God that your current needs are met. You might not have all of the glitz and glam, you may not be able to do much more with your money but you will never be seen begging bread because you are a Kings Kid! According to Jeremiah 29:11, your GREATER IS COMING! Stay the course and keep your eye on the One who leads you. One day at a time.
All my love,
Keya
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