Today is the Day

Preacher:
Date: July 29, 2016

Bible Text: Matthew 6:25-34 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.                          2 Corinthians 6:2

For many years, C.S. Lewis, the late Cambridge University professor of English literature, was skeptical of Christianity. But in time Lewis became a believer in Jesus Christ and become one of Christianity’s leading apologists or defenders of the faith.  Lewis was a prolific writer who delighted in a bit of humor or sarcasm.

In one of his most popular books, The Screwtape Letters, Lewis pictures a demon in hell by the name of Screwtape, writing to his nephew Wormwood. Uncle Screwtape is constantly telling his nephew how to be a better demon and do a better job destroying people on earth.  In one of his letters Uncle Screwtape‑‑who, remember, is a demon in Hell‑‑gives the following advice in telling Wormwood how to deceive men on earth:

“My dear Wormwood: Our business is to get them [meaning humans] away from the eternal and from the present.  With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human (say a widow or a scholar) to live in the past….  It is far better to make them live in the future.  In a word the future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity.  It is the most completely temporal part of time.”

Although it is rather doubtful that any demon ever wrote his nephew on the subject of deceiving people, Lewis’ comments have much to recommend them.  He points out a real truth in suggesting that there is a personal devil who is more than a figment of the imagination.  Rather, as Scripture says, he is the enemy of our souls.

Again, Lewis is right in saying that the devil’s business is to make you center on thoughts of the past and of the future, but not of today or eternity.  Why is that?  There is good reason for it.  When you live in the past, you do nothing about your life today.  On the other hand, when you live in the sweet by‑and‑by world of tomorrow, you close your life to TODAY.  And when it is all said and done, today is the only time you can do anything about eternity.

Have you ever known someone who lived in the past?  It is easy for an elderly person to roll back the calendar of time and relive those memories of past days.  On the other hand, the exuberance of youth lives in the dreams of tomorrow‑‑what a person is going to do.  Both extremes take your mind off today.  Jesus taught that you must live in neither the past nor the future, but He urged us to live today fully in the light of eternity.  He says that your major concern in life should not be worrying about your bills, or your appearance, or what may happen to you tomorrow.

Worry saps your energy and spiritual strength. The Bible says that God already knows the things you need even before you bother to ask Him.  About our lives today, Christ said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).  Friend, don’t worry at all, then, about tomorrow. Tomorrow can take care of itself.  One day’s trouble is enough for one day.

Writing to the people consumed with thoughts of tomorrow, Paul wrote, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).  Tomorrow is uncertain‑‑it is beyond your grasp.  When the sun sets, you cannot turn back the clock because the past is a closed chapter.  But today is yours to use to the glory of God.  Use it wisely, friend, for it is the only day in the world you can do anything about.

Resource reading: Matthew 6:25-34