Meditation for Day 9

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

     Psalm 118: 24

                Yesterday, today, and tomorrow: these are times of our lives.  Too often our yesterdays are crammed with regrets.  For, we spend one-half of our time worrying about those things that we left undone, or we spend time crying about the things that we tried and failed.  Our future is always a veil through which we cannot see.  As a result, we spend the other half of our time anxious about it.  We worry about what is going to happen to our children, whether we are going to able to pay the bills, or who is going to care for us in our old age.  In truth, we spend so much time looking back at yesterday  and looking ahead at tomorrow that we fail to live happily in the today.

The writer of Psalm 118 declares that he will rejoice in the today? How can we have joy today if we spend our times worrying about yesterday and tomorrow? Impossible! What we need to do is release yesterday; it has already happened.  There is no changing it.  Trust God to order our future; he and only he has the power to do so.  After we have taken our eyes of yesterday and tomorrow, then we can have room to rejoice and be glad in the now.   In other words, live one day at a time.

Gracious God,  In this new year, help us to let go of the regrets of the past and the anxieties about the future so that we can rejoice and be glad today.  In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.