11/19/2018
“Love is Just a Game” —you remember, “winners walk out laughing, losers cry, deal again.” Some of the best lyrics for sad songs come from Larry Gatlin. Today’s SIMH is from Larry and the brothers. He wrote “I Don’t Wanna Cry This Early this Morning”—“All the Gold in California”—“She’s a Broken Lady,” and many others. Larry wrote, the brothers harmonized. Pretty good music, for the most part.
Monday is here, hope you had a “thankful” day yesterday, and work on all thankfulness for the next four days. This is a great week (even if all of them are great) because we get to be reminded or remind ourselves of the magnitude of spiritual blessings which are right before us. If you’ve trusted what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you for your eternal life, you’ve experienced yet only the tip of the pyramid of blessings! As long as we’re in these bodies, we’ll catch the glimpse of glory bright from time to time. But, the flesh and the misery of this world around us will bring a pall over its brightness.
Our focus should always be about what is next; the day, the task, the privilege, the expectation, the blessing, all that. Even though memories are often precious and worth recalling, as you’ve noticed I call them up in this blog quite often, memories are for the experience of learning. Today, let your mind go back to where you were and what you were doing 8 years ago. Too hard? Ok, go back to somewhere close to that; a spot in your memory, perhaps where you set a goal to be somewhere in 6 or 8 or 10 years which will bring you to the present. Are you there? Did you reach it? Do you still want the same thing? Are you happy with having achieved it?
The answers are not important, the memories are, though. By your memories, you frame the future. By them, emotions are reared to exert thought pressure, your spirit is re-directed to a new action either expected or unexpected. And though you cannot see around the bend in the road, you can know whether you should slow down or speed up, whether you should change lanes now are charge ahead. Memories do that for you. Don’t pay any attention to the idea of forgetting your experiences. Oh, I’m not saying you live in the past, that’s a horrible place to live. (See what Paul said about it in Philippians 3 — press on toward the prize. But for the sake of not being confused, see how Paul’s memories of these people (ch.4) framed his and their futures while still in this life, and how the affect of that will go to their eternal future.)
Live now, knowing what you know now. Live for the Lord, but live for those whom you love, also. Then live for yourself. If you are the Lord’s, follow the inspiration He gave directly to Paul and see how all the Lord’s truth (Genesis to Revelation) will fit and retrofit your life. In addition to priority study of Paul’s epistles (Romans through Philemon), I highly recommend a study of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. There that’s enough study for one day, right?
Let not the day’s evil distract you. The Lord said you don’t have to add to it, there’s enough evil already there. One of the “evils” which fits in easily to our days is this: we want more than we need. In the book of Luke, a book full of short yet powerful life lessons, the Lord said, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” What you have is not what you are, neither will what you want make you what you want to be. Keep those things separated in your thoughts and plans.
When we use, “In all things give thanks, and by prayer and supplication make (our) requests know to God,” we must take care to note what happens because we did that: “..and the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep (our) hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” How does He do that? Simple: He matches our prayers to His will (see Rom.8:26-30)—we’re His. What answer do we get? Peace. No peace concerning that for which we prayed? Keep praying.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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