How's Your Day?

How's Your Day?

by David Brenneman 

‭‭"So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." Ephesians 4:17-24.

How's your day going?  How did it start?  Last night, my thoughts were a mess, I am not going to lie about it.  My mind is always a train roundhouse with several thoughts going out while others are trying to get back in. A more modern way of saying that is that there's several tabs open on my browser and I have no idea which one the music is coming from.

It's when my mind and heart try to cling to prayer.  To reach out to my Savior when I really don't have the words to say that equal the grief and stress trying to beat down the door to my head and my heart. 

Those opening verses...walking like the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.  It's referring to people with no hope, no one to pray to, no one to truly lean on.  Thinking that sheer determination and effort are enough to handle what life throws at them.  Thinking of self preservation.  Thinking of luck.  Thinking that somehow the cards are either in their favor or against them.  These are those who believe in the idea of karma. F u t i l i t y.

What a waste of existence. 

What a waste of time. 

What a waste of life. 

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.  He's out to do these 3 things in any way permitted by the restrictions placed on him by God.

Primarily he used to only be after God's chosen people, Israel. After the absolute loss at the cross of calvary, he set his sights on the Church of Jesus Christ as well.  

He isn't going away until even his part of the plan of God is finished.  

Yes, even that guy is part of God's plan for mankind.  

Part of our troubles in life indeed are attributed to him, the rest is on our sin nature itself.  

Who's in the driver's seat?  Who's flying the plane?  Who's directing the choir?  Who's calling the shots? How else can it be asked?  

Who's the leader of your life?

Some still use the phrase "the devil made me do it".  Not always.  We are the ones who either roll over or cry out to God.

We either choose to believe and do as the Spirit directs or we go another way.  Only we miss out in that His way is always the right way. 

In the futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.

When we listen more to the words of the world rather than the Word of God...it DOES do something to our hearts.  Matters not in this respect between Believers and the world.  The Word of God is what opens the hearts unto salvation in Christ Jesus.  It's also what sustains the heart. It's what grows the heart and causes the heart to yield fruits of righteousness.  Your heart is either going to bear fruit that is good or fruit that is bad. 

We learn from the words of Jesus that we will know people by their fruits.  The world loves to abuse that statement of "you shouldn't judge".  On the contrary, you must judge a person's fruits to know if they are saved or not saved.  You must judge a person's fruits to know if they are living as the ways of the world are or if they are living a life in Godliness in Christ Jesus.  To know if two people, a man and a woman since that is God's only acceptable marriage partnership, are equally yoked is by judgment of their lives before marriage. 

We need to judge between two options or opinions most of our days.  It's a requirement for Godly living. 

So how's your day?  Are you including your Savior in your day at all times?   As foolish as it sounds...do you leave Jesus at home while you go out into the world?

As foolish as it sounds...do you leave Jesus out of your life's achievements and decisions?

Your day...think about that...your day is not YOUR day.  It is as much a gift from God as the salvation that is offered to those who believe. 

Your day isn't yours.  It, along with everything else, belongs to God.

Your day is shaped by your obedience to the Word of God or the words of the world.  You cannot serve two masters as Jesus also said something about.

Are you getting the picture yet about your day?  As Ambassadors of God in Christ Jesus...are you a horder of the blessings of God?  As freely He gave to you, do you freely give?  Are you thinking only of your personal well-being rather than being a generous giver as the Bible says the Lord loves?  

How you look at your day shapes your day.  

Jesus said to pray, showed the Disciples and all of us the priorities in prayer, not some mantra to drone out as a prayer as if something magical exists in recitation of it.

Jesus said that when we pray to pray expecting. If we don't have an expectation of God hearing our prayers and acting on our behalf...then why pray?

How you pray has every single bearing on how your day is going to go.  How you look for God's provision let alone look for Jesus to show up in your day is going to shape your day. 

Millions of people waste their days aimlessly groping around in the darkness, the futility of their minds, because they are not believing that God's waiting on them to come to Him in faith to do something in their lives. 

I was taught long ago to have God sized prayers.  To not just think of the need of the moment but to remember that it says to bring what? EVERYTHING to God in prayer.  Not just what we foolishly and ignorantly think He can or may handle. 

How your day is going to go is how well your prayer life is.  

Success in your day certainly ought to be more than a consideration that you managed to get dressed so that made you a success for a moment.  Success is how God defines it. Not how the world does. 

I don't know what today's got going on in it...I just know that Jesus was always already here before I got here.   Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough trouble of its own. 

Jesus said to believe in God, to believe also in Him.

So how are you going to approach your today now?  As one of Dr. Charles Stanley's Life Principles says...obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.  But you have to be listening to Him to know what it is He wants your obedience in.  Ananias surely thought that going to that man named Saul was ludicrous!  Yet he obeyed...left the consequences to Jesus...and in his obedience...Ananias changed the world just as much as the soon to be Apostle Paul. 

You do not know what your little amount of obedience is going to do for the kingdom of God in what you only think is an ordinary life, an ordinary day.

Your prayer might alter your life as well as the lives of others unimagined in your thinking. 

Look at the pattern of the life of Jesus...prayer was essentially spiritual mealtime.  It was his life in prayer with His Father that sustained Him going towards the cross.  There's nothing anywhere at any time that was going to be more difficult than that road to that cross. 

Prayer changes everyone.

Prayer changes everything. 

All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.