How To Make Everyday A Great Day!
Dear Visionary Leader:
“This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).” I write to challenge us to take every God-given day and make it a God-governed day, and then by God’s grace it will be a God-gladdened day. I believe this is the summary of life’s greatest challenge. How can we make everyday a great day? I believe when we ponder the facts of each day, we will be wiser in our actions, attitudes and achievements.
The first undeniable fact about today is that it is a Provided Day.
God made it. Time is God’s great gift to you and me. The value of the gift is determined by what we do with it. We are stewards over this day that God has given us. We all have the same amount of time.
It doesn’t matter who we are, there are 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds in a day. We all have the same amount of time. The difference in people is not that one has more time than the other person; the difference is how we spend that time. You can have a more expensive watch than me, but you don’t have more time than me. It may only be a minute but eternity is in it!
The second fact about today is that it is a Present Day.
The Psalmist said, “This is the day which the Lord has made. He did not say “was the day,” or “will be the day”. This is the day, which the Lord has made. There are two days that can steal the joy out of today. One is yesterday and the other is tomorrow.
Many leaders need to unhook ourselves from the past. I like what the Apostle Paul had to say in the third chapter of Philippians. He said, “I am forgetting those things which are behind.” Paul refused to live in the past. There were a lot of things in Paul’s life that he unhooked himself from. He had to let go of past guilt. He spoke of himself as, “the chief of sinners,” but he refused to be haunted by the ghost of guilt.
Next, Paul had to let go of past glory. He was a man who achieved much-the greatest apostle. But he forgot about it because that was yesterday. Then, there was past grief. He had suffered, but he refused to sit around and lick his wounds. Last, there were past grudges. He had been mistreated, but he left those things in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. I encourage you not to pull around the load of yesterday. Forget those things which are behind.
There is another day that can take the joy out of today, and that’s tomorrow. So many leaders don’t enjoy today because we are waiting for tomorrow. William Marston, who was a psychologist, surveyed 3,000 people, and he found out that of those 3,000 people, 94% of them were enduring today to get to tomorrow. They were waiting for tomorrow. We fail to live today in the glory of today because we are anticipating tomorrow and thinking about all the wonderful things that are going to happen tomorrow.
Let me tell you another way tomorrow can eat the joy out of today. Not only are we waiting for tomorrow, but we spend so much time worrying about tomorrow. When we reach over into tomorrow and borrow trouble from tomorrow, we begin to worry. That’s the interest we pay on borrowed trouble.
God has not given us strength for tomorrow’s problems. God has only given us strength for today’s problems for he said in the book of Deuteronomy, “As your days are, so shall your strength be (Deuteronomy 33:25).” If we use today’s strength on tomorrow’s problems, then I meet tomorrow out of breath because I’ve expended my strength trying to handle today’s problems and tomorrow’s problems with only today’s strength.
Worry doesn’t take the sorrow out of tomorrow. Worry takes the strength out of today. Yesterday is a cancelled check. Tomorrow is but a promissory note. Today is the only cash you have. Spend it wisely.
How To Make Everyday A Great Day Continues in Visionary Coaching.
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The Bible says, “This is the day which the Lord has made…” Right? This is the day which the Lord hath made…” Don’t waste time. Do you know what it means to waste time? Wasting time is suicide by degrees for time is the stuff that life is made out of. Don’t kill time. Spend time. Invest time. Squeeze every ounce of juice out of today that you can.
One of the greatest truths I have ever learned is there is enough time in every day to do gracefully everything. After you know what it is that God wants you to do, then you need to set priorities. Setting priorities is so important because so many times our choice in life is not between good and bad. Life would be a cinch if it were that simple. Life is a choice between good and best. We are to work smarter, not just harder. Good things become bad things when they keep us from the best things.
What we need to do is to cultivate in our lives, the attitude of instant obedience. Whatever God says unto you, do it. What a wonderful motto for our lives. This day is a precious day and I want to get the most out of it.
The fourth fact about today is that it is a Passing Day.
The Bible says, “This is the day which the Lord has made,” but this day is swiftly passing along into the tomb of time and soon it will be done. There are only two things you can do with time. You can’t save time; you can’t borrow time; you can’t loan time; you can’t leave time. The only thing you can do with time is you can use it or lose it. Time can’t be stopped. You can’t call time out in the game of life. Time can’t be stored. You can’t put it in the bank. Time can’t be stretched. You can’t add a cup of water to it. Time can’t be loaned. I can’t give you any of mine and you can’t give me any of yours.
Are you going to do something for God? Is there something God has been laying on your heart? Then, get started today! The Bible says, “Boast not yourself of tomorrow for you know not what a day may bring forth.” This is the day. It is a passing day.
Robert Moffatt, a pioneer missionary said, “We shall have all eternity in which to celebrate our victories but only a few brief hours before the sun sets in which to gain them.”
The final fact about today is that it is a Providential Day.
The Bible says, “This is the day which the Lord has made.” There is God’s providence in today. God overrules today. Nothing is going to come to me but that it comes through him first. I want you to know the sovereign God is in charge of the affairs of this world, and not a blade of grass moves without his permission.
Do you know what the secret of joy is? Listen to what the psalmist said, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Do you know what the secret of joy is? It is to see the providence of God in everything and to thank him for it.
Did you know that you can choose to be happy and you can choose to be unhappy? There are some people who just enjoy being miserable. Maybe there ought to be somewhere we could just lock them all up and let them worry one another. They just seem to want to be unhappy. Did you know that you can resolutely say, “This is the day which the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
In our hearts, we thank him for sun; do we thank him for rain? We thank him for joy, do we thank him for pain? We thank him for gains; do we thank him for losses? We thank him for blessings; do we thank him for crosses?
This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Do you want to make this a great day? Live in the eternal now. Today is the only day you have. Stop saying, “If I had time.” You do have time. Unhook yourself from yesterday. Quit waiting for tomorrow and live today for the glory of God. For if you will let every God-given day be a God-governed day, it will be a God-gladdened day, and you will be able to say, “This is the day, which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Until The Last Person Has Heard,
Dr. James O. Davis
Cofounder / Billion Soul Network
Cochair / Global Networking
