"Let go, and let God," for example grants no one peace in the face of tragedies and trying circumstances. What good is one's conception of God if a man cannot explain terrorist activities like 9-11. Could not God, as we understand Him, have prevented such terrible events.
Without a proper understanding of human history as recorded in the Bible, men and women will never understand why a Good God does not intervene directly in the terrible events which transpire across the world, and that furthermore He is not the cause of the great evils in this world, and is not powerless to do anything about them.
Without going deeply into spiritual truths, I want to return to the basic, yet essential importance of seeing God as He really is, that He is greater that our past, our present, our future, our understanding, that He can reach out of eternity into our times and seasons and make bad things good, and good things great.
Our conception of God will be automatically bankrupted and fraudulent. It will be fraudulent because we deceive ourselves, or we allow others to deceive us, if we really think that we can understand God, or frame Him with any kind of proper perspective.
I have written at length about the danger of putting God into the box of our own limited conception of Him. We may end up projecting an abusive parent, our troubled childhood, onto God, when His consummate goodness cannot be reasoned, but must be believed.
Today, I want to attack one of the hollowest mantras, one which seems like simple, good advice, yet which turns out to be one of the worst lies in the program:
"One day at a time."
Sounds good, right? Do not worry about tomorrow, just live in today.
Yet the more that someone, anyone invests in this idea, the more scared, the more troubled one becomes. Why is that? I have to consider tomorrow, the next day, to plan for the future, to prepare for greater things to come my way, as well as factor in the potential troubles, dangers, and hardships which I may face.
If I want to live responsibly, then I cannot simply, resolutely live one day at a time. Now, AA proponents might challenge me with "You have to use common sense, of course." However, the AA cult takes away people's sense, telling them to turn their will and life over to a power greater than themselves, yet as they understand him, her, it, whatever. Oftentimes, we limit ourselves to the opinions and follies of other people, and more importantly the sponsors whom men and women bring themselves to submit to.
The stupid limitations of many sponsors so bankrupts peoples' understanding of God and his goodness, and forces people to give up any kind of common sense.
One day at a time created in my mind the idea of a God who was not going to help me with my tomorrows, who was not in my tomorrows.
Yet even the Bible provides a safeguard for our tomorrows., even if we are not supposed to be concerned about them:
"33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6: 33-34)
Man's greatest need is righteousness, that we have a stance of perfect justification before God the Father. With this gift of righteousness we receive His life (Romans 8: 10) and the abundance of grace with the gift of righteousness (Romans 5: 17)
We need life, and this life we receive through the Gift of God's Son:
"I am that you might have life, and that more abundantly" (John 10: 10)
Yet there is so much more to God than just getting through one day at a time. Notice that in Jesus' exhortation to seek His righteousness -- tomorrow will worry about tomorrow. I struggled with this passage for quite some time. Yet the more that the Holy Spirit witnesses to me of Christ, the more that I see that Jesus is He who has been from the beginning (1 John 2: 12-14).
He is worrying about our tomorrows, because He holds all our times in His hands. The central theme of Matthew chapter 6 is His life living in and around us, protecting and providing for us in all aspects of our lives:
26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? the Sermon on the Mount is the very life which God grants us through His Son." (Matthew 6: 26-27)
Like many people before I understood the fullness of God's gift of righteousness through His Son, I did not take to hear the full import of this wonderful verse. God our Father is actively feeding the birds! He is taking care of them, even now, and so every time we look out on the world, where we see every fowl, or more specifically unclean ravens (Luke 12: 24) are taken care of, all the time, every day!
Do we take time to consider these wonderful, safeguarding promises? How can we, if we are stuck relying on our own pitiful conception of God?
Consider also this wonderful promise in the Scripture, in the same Sermon on the Mount:
"28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" (Matthew 6: 28-30)
Do we not understand that God is actively clothing the flowers of the field, and these same flowers are here today, gone tomorrow. Yet God wishes to clothe us with the robe of righteousness through His Son (Isaiah 61: 10; 2 Corinthians 5: 21), and with His Son we can expect that He will freely give us all things with Him (Romans 8: 32)
He is taking care of all these things, and yet we are worth so much more than the birds and the flowers. How can we know this? Because He gave us His Son!
He prizes us so much, that He gave His Son for us (John 3: 16), and through Him we receive everlasting life.
Because we have His everlasting life and standing in His Kingdom, how can we not see the folly of settling for "One Day at a Time"? We have eternal life, and we are residents of His blessed Kingdom (Colossians 1: 13)
Our God is greater than our times, which He holds in His hands (Psalm 31: 15). I know that He is taking care of my tomorrows, as well as covering and recreating my yesterdays. We are held in His loving grip, and thus we do not take though for our tomorrows, because He is taking thought for all things in our lives:
"6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5: 6-7)
And this matter of casting our cares on God means that we keep casting our cares on Him, and we have a growing understanding of How great He is. If we stay trapped in the silly notion that our tomorrows are out of our hands as well as His, we end up getting more afraid, not less:
"9Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" (Isaiah 64: 9-10)
God is so great, so above time, change, and nature, that He can declare the end from the beginning, and in that order, too. We see things from our present, and oftentimes are present is adulterated by our limited misunderstandings about the past.
Take another look at Psalm 31:15:
"My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me."
Our times are in His hands. This is so much greater than "one day at a time". I do not want to settle for the hollow, faulty, fallen mantras of a man-centered cult which puts God not only into the box of man's limited intellect, but forces people to run this good through a stupid set of steps and in bondage to a "self-help" group which is no help at all.
Not only that, but because we are in Christ, time is no longer a final determinant in our lives:
"And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." (John 15: 27)
and
"13I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. . .. 14I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning." (1 John 2: 13-14)
To be a father, to be mature in Christ, is not based on what we do, or even what we know in our intellect, but that we see Him who has been from the beginning, who is in all things, and has made all things, and for who, all things are made: Jesus!
Forget one day at a time as a comfort measure for barely getting by. See more of the Son, and find that He is taking care of you and your times for all time, as well as one day at a time!
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