Day by Day

 

In my recent article called "Does Being Saved Make All Your Troubles Disappear?" I wrote about the fact that the Lord does not make all our troubles go away when we come to Christ. But He does give us the grace and strength to face each day, to endure our trials, and to be of good cheer in the midst of them. 

Today I'd like to share with you a very special Swedish hymn written in 1865 by Lina Sandell-Berg, which is one of my favorite hymns. She wrote it at age 26, several years after witnessing her father,  Pastor Jonas Sandell, drown in a tragic boating accident in 1858. The hymn was written during a period of deep personal grief, serving as a testament to her reliance on God's strength and presence, taking life one day at a time just as our Lord Jesus taught us to do. Despite her tragedy, she found comfort in her faith in Christ, composing this lovely hymn that reflects a deep, personal assurance of God's care in the midst of trials.

In The Lord's Church today, we sang this hymn together, as we often have so many times before. Here is the video recording of it with the view outside our window earlier in the morning at sunrise. My son Christopher is playing the keyboard, as he usually does during our worship service.

Lyrics:

Day by day, and with each passing moment,

Strength I find to meet my trials here;

Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,

I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.

He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,

Gives unto each day what He deems best,

Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day the Lord Himself is near me,

With a special mercy for each hour;

All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me,

He whose name is Counsellor and Pow’r.

The protection of His child and treasure

Is a charge that on Himself He laid;

“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”

This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then, in every tribulation,

So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,

That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation,

Offered me within Thy holy Word.

Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,

E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,

One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,

Till I reach the Promised Land.

Closing Words

Are you going through deep trials or experiencing personal tragedy at this time? Let me assure you that Jesus cares and He would like to help you through it. Just call upon His name today and ask Him for His presence, grace, and strength to get through it, and ask Him to hold your hand. I can assure you that He will do it. Then trust in Him, take it one day at a time, and don't worry about tomorrow.

Author's note:  If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Does Being Saved Make All Your Problems Disappear?, The Blessings of Being in Christ. The Love of Jesus, Having the Love of God in Your Heart, Compelled by Love, One Thing, Seven Things That Accumulate Building Materials in Heaven, and the other posts available through the links on the Home page. You may also access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Him.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe. 

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

______________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

Forgetting the Past

It's natural to think back on  the past and either take pleasure in it or regret it. I want to encourage you to forget the past, regardless of whether it is something good or bad. The Lord says,

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” (Is 43:18b-19a, NIV)

As Smith Wigglesworth once said, “God’s plan for you is to forget the past in every way, because the future is so amazingly wonderful."

The apostle Paul was an excellent example of someone who put this into practice. He had achieved a faultless level of legalistic righteousness, and had superior religious credentials. Yet he said, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…” (Phil 3:7-8, NIV)

He could have carried those things over into his walk with Christ and boasted about them, but instead he considered them as garbage compared to knowing Christ. He considered them loss for the sake of Christ. He wasn't neutral at all about them, but radically threw out anything that could cause any pride. As Wigglesworth once said, “Whatever has happened in my life up to this moment is of no importance. What matters is what God is to me now.”

Paul put it this way: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Php 3:13b-14, NIV). He practiced forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.

You cannot rely upon your past achievements for God or your past relationship with the Lord or how He has used you in the past. The important thing is how your relationship is with Him today.

God is doing a new thing. If you stay focused on the past, you will miss the new thing He is doing. It keeps getting better and better. He always saves the best for last, just as when He turned the water into wine. The master of the banquet said, "You have saved the best till now." (Joh 2:10b, NIV). The same is true in our lives that the Lord saves the best for last. No matter who you are, you can always say, "The best is yet to come," because if you are still on earth, heaven is yet future. The Lord has set before us the joy of being in His glorious presence for eternity. We know there is great joy set before us that lies just ahead. Indeed, the future is amazingly wonderful.

The apostle exhorted us to practice, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2, NIV). Notice that even Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him.

Paul said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Rom 8:!8, NIV). There is no comparison between our sufferings and the glory to be revealed in us. In fact, in his epistle to the Corinthians, he took it a step further to say, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor 4:17, NIV). That means that our troubles are actually helping to bring about the glory we look forward to. It also means that if you had a balance used for weighing things and on the one side you put all your troubles, while on the other side you put the glory of God to be revealed in us one day, then no matter how many troubles you pile onto the scale and no matter how big they are, they will never come close to tipping the scales. Nothing could ever outweigh the glory to be revealed. It far outweighs anything we could ever experience here on earth, whether good or bad. If we keep that in mind, it will help us put our trials into proper perspective, as well as our greatest joys and achievements. Nothing compares with the promised eternal inheritance we have in Christ.

One thing we must not forget are the sins we have committed, which we have not yet repented of or asked God to forgive us for. We must repent of these and seek forgiveness from God, as well as anyone we have offended, and make restitution as necessary. Once we have taken care of these things, then we should forget about them. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1Jn 1:9). Once you have taken your trash to the dump, leave it there. Don't go digging it up again and again.

Another thing in the past we must never forget are the Lord's mighty deeds and the wonders He has performed. These we must remember and ponder -- deeds such as His work of atonement on the cross, his death, burial, and resurrection, and the mighty acts of power He has displayed throughout history. We should remember what He did for Israel as a nation, such as His parting of the Red Sea, bringing them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. We should remember what He has done for people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Elijah, Daniel, Shadrach, Mischach, and Abednego. We should remember what He did on the day of Pentecost, and what He did for the apostles like Peter and John in the first century. We should remember what He has done for the saints down through the ages like Martin Luther, John Huss, William Carey,  John Wesley, Adoniram Judson, Ida Scudder, Mary Slessor, Smith Wigglesworth, and Hudson Taylor. We should remember what he has done during the Welsh revival, the Asuza Street revival, the Great Awakening, and the Second Great Awakening. We should remember His might deeds that He has done for us and those we love. We should not forget that we have been cleansed of our past sins (2 Pet 1:9). Let us forget the past, but always remember the Lord's great and marvelous deeds.

Attribution notice: Scriptures taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, unless otherwise noted.

Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like For the Glory of God Alone, The Light and the Glory, Whatever You Do, Do All Like This, Pleasing the Lord, Success in God's Eyes, Having a Servant's Heart, Holy Living in a Perverted World, The Difference Between a Disciple and a Believer, Seeing Jesus, Loving Him, Character and Glory, Walking in the Perfect Will of God, One Thing, Our Senior Pastor, Ask for the Ancient Paths, Striving to Enter the Kingdom of God, Living a Life Worthy of the Lord, Aim for Perfection, and The Wardrobe of the Saints. I highly recommend reading Only the Holy -- Three Shocking Testimonies and Holy Fire Baptism. You may find the Main Directory for this blog at Home, and also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.