Today… Now. At present. Not future. Not past….
“..encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Heb. 3:13)
This verse has always haunted me. ‘Today’. That’s all we have. No promise for tomorrow, yesterday is certainly gone…and even today may be short-lived.
I don’t profess to know all things, my mind struggles to wrap itself around concepts like this. My life is so defined by time. I can’t understand how it will be, to be free of those limitations. I can’t grasp that God is not in this time box with me, He is not limited by anything, even time.
The only limits God has, are the ones I choose to set. He allows me that freedom, and will never take that choice from me. Even when I make bad ones…
And the part about sin being deceitful and the danger of it hardening my heart….what’s that all about?
New meaning on this ‘today’.
Sin has no pride, is not put off by circumstances….in fact, cashes in on each opportunity.
When we are at our lowest, ‘like a roaring lion’ it creeps in to devour.(1Peter 5:8)
We need God’s strength and protection even more during those times…we need encouragement from our spiritual siblings to help us keep our eyes on Jesus and not our situation. We need to live ‘today’ while fully expecting the promises of His tomorrow, trusting Him without reservation with our future. (we certainly can’t secure it..)
If we do not have Him, we push our way thru the difficulties of this life, depending on self, and callous ourselves against the pain of living.
And living in this place can be so painful. It is a dire mistake to try to stop that pain.
If we choose to slowly protect ourselves from that pain, we wake up one day having slowly calloused ourselves over, so that we no longer hurt…but we are just as insensitive to God as we are to the hurt that comes from living in this world.
“If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul. These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don’t turn a deaf ear…” (Heb. 3:14,15 The Message)
