Living Life Moment by Moment

I just finished a book, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. This convicting book challenges the Christian to live a life completely surrendered to Christ instead of living a lukewarm life. I would encourage all believers to read this thought provoking book because it really awakens one to what the church is actually supposed to look like in the areas of loving, serving, and giving.

In the back of the book, Chan placed a chapter from his book, Forgotten God. This chapter was incredibly challenging for me. It talked about how stuck a lot of believers are on "the will of God".

"I think a lot of us need to forget about God's will for my life. God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions. It is easy to use the phrase "God's will for my life" as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It's much less demanding to think about God's will for your future than it is to ask Him what he wants you to do in the next ten minutes. It's safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day."

I thought this very interesting to think about. I know that I am often so focused on what I will be doing or how God will be using me in the future, that I rarely consider the present. And a lot of that attention on the future consists of worry and fear. 

In Luke 9:22 Jesus said, " Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." We are to take up our cross daily. We are to be his disciples right now in the present moment. We can't wait around for next week or next year to come before we start serving him as disciples. 

This really challenged me to begin taking every moment captive, constantly asking myself, "How can I right now serve someone else or give to someone else." In doing this, "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"(Matthew 25:40)

In addition to being obedient to Christ, I think that by focusing more on the present, it will take the worry and fear away from the future that so easily pervades our thoughts. It also helps to focus your attention on heaven because if you continue to humble yourself by loving others in each moment, you will be reminded that you may not get a reward right then(though we actually don't deserve one anyhow), but by obeying Christ, a reward awaits you in heaven.

So many of us have the concept of, "when this day comes, then my life will begin", and that should change. God has given us each day as a gift to be used in a way that is glorifying to him. Every moment is precious to God and should be precious to us as well. What about you? Where is your focus? Are you always waiting for the future to come to change or obey or are you living in obedience right now every moment? I encourage you to live your life moment by moment, step by step, instead of continually focusing on the next chapter of your life. Be grateful for each day and use it for God's honor and glory, not your own.