“You cannot control the events and circumstances of life, but you can control your reaction to those events and circumstances.”

I’ve posted this statement before, and the truth of it hits home every time I think of it. Many of us are feeling the pressure of the season as we head into December. We all have personal goals and things that need to be done before the end of the year along with getting ready for Christmas. That means we need to be intentional with our time.

Having this time in the morning to focus my mind has become very important to me. It’s like putting gas into my engine for the day, yet there are mornings where I want to roll over and sleep in. I know that once I sit down and get started I will find inspiration for the day, yet my mind still tries to tell me to skip it for today. Why is that? The enemy knows how powerful it can be when we spend time meditating and thinking on God and his Scripture so he will do all he can to distract me or to get me to not worry about today.

In fact many times we spend our time thinking on two specific days:

Yesterday and Tomorrow.

Yesterday:

Why do I think about Yesterday? Because it’s a day that I can’t change. Often we don’t reflect on how we were victorious or how God moved but our human nature is to focus on what we didn’t do well and what could have gone better.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

That doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t think on the past to give God glory for how He has moved in our lives, or to look back and see how He was faithful when at the time we thought He was absent. Sometimes it’s only through the lens of reflection that we can see what really took place. But we don’t need to live in the past by either replaying failures over and over as that just cements them further into our minds. Nor do we need to unnecessarily relive triumphs – we often remember things much better than they really were!

Tomorrow:

Why do I think about Tomorrow? Many times not so much as for planning but for a day that I can push things off to. “I’ll get to it tomorrow” can be a deceiving plan. Tomorrow can be this magical day that EVERYTHING will get done and things will go perfectly. But experience shows that tomorrow rarely works out as we envision it. This is different than planning for the future. Sometimes we need to have a plan for when we will get to things, and that isn’t what I’m talking about. For me, it can be too easy to look at a task or project and say I’ll get to it tomorrow rather than just getting it done today as planned. And it can also be easy for me to focus on something coming up in the future not to think it through but to worry about it and spend mental energy on it that isn’t useful.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)

So, I necessarily need to focus my mental energy on what lies before me today. It’s not wrong to be hopeful for tomorrow or the future, but are we really being hopeful, or just spending mental energy worrying?

Today:

• “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)
• “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity…” (Ephesians 5:15-16)
• “Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” (James 4:14)

All that is guaranteed to me is today.

Yesterday is already spent, tomorrow is a dream but today is what lies ahead of me. The forecast for today is always the same:

The Son will shine and God will reign.