I'm sure a lot of you have been told by your parents, friends, or someone to "live in the moment!". Such a cliché saying but it has brought light to my life. We live in a world and society that always feels like we need to be in a rush or in a hurry. I can vouch to this personally. I just finished my junior year in college and finals seemed to approach faster than I had anticipated. It felt like my days were filled with long TO-DO lists that seemed to never end. I swore every time I accomplished one task I was always adding another one to the list. Their never seemed like enough hours in a day to get everything that I needed to get done. Forget eating during finals, the only thing that had my attention was the papers, projects, and tests I had to complete. I was so stressed out over those couple of days wondering how I was going to accomplish everything by it's respective due date. I'm not going to lie, I felt so defeated with everything coming at me.
In this moment God wanted my attention, He wanted me to turn to Him and give Him all my stress. I swore I reminded myself 3,000 times that week that my worth isn't defined by my grades or my GPA no matter how many people tell you that graduating with kum laude is the most important thing you can accomplish in college. Although, that is pretty stinkin' cool, it doesn't define you. Last time I checked, my 4.0 isn't going to get me a ticket into heaven. I mean school is just one of the things that we can feel rushed in. Maybe school isn't what has your attention right now, maybe it's a boyfriend or girlfriend, job, or organization. Maybe you are in a 3 year relationship and feeling rushed to get married, or you just graduated college and feel like you should have already landed the perfect job a month ago with the best paying salary, or maybe you just graduated high school and are about to start rushing for a sorority within the next few months and feel like you need to find the best outfits to get you into the perfect sorority.
Whatever is making you feel rushed in this season rest in this verse from Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own". I cling to this verse daily. We can get so ahead of ourselves and worry about the future when we don't even know what tomorrow is going to bring. We worry about landing the perfect job, or the perfect spouse when we don't even can't even fathom the imaginable things that God already has in store for us. Something I have been worrying and struggling on lately is how God is going to use me. I worry that i'm not good enough to lead the ones around me. I worry that I am not equipped enough to be in charge of sharing His word to the ones who need it most. I worry that when I do share His word that i'm not doing it right, that there was always something that I could've done or said. I worry about my grades, family, friends, future job, future spouse, I mean the list goes on and on.
I want to go back to Matthew 6:34, "Therefor do not worry about tomorrow" it doesn't say do not worry about next month or next year it says tomorrow. Do not worry about tomorrow or the next day, or the next. Take everyday one day at a time. "For tomorrow will worry about itself", meaning tomorrow is it's own day, you will get to tomorrow when you get to it. Why should you stress about something that isn't happening in the moment. You see, I think God tells us to not worry about tomorrow because He is trying to tell us something in each and every day of our lives. He is talking to us, guiding us, and showing us where He wants us to be. If you are too focused on tomorrow, next month or next year then how are you going to be able to hear what He is telling you today? You are going to miss out on what He is telling you in the moment because you are too busy worrying about tomorrow. This can be such a challenging thing for us to apply to our lives because we are constantly being moved by this world when we are supposed to being moved by God, the one who created heaven and earth. "Each day is a trouble of it's own", ain't that the truth. Some days are hard, some days will make you feel like tomorrow is a year away. Gals and guys, that's when you need relationship with God and the Holy Spirit the most. Your days aren't going to be perfect, they're going to come with challenges but can I tell you something personal, I have grown so much from some of my hardest challenges God has faced me with in my troubled days. I've learned to embrace my challenges a little bit more than before. I've learned to live in the moment that God has given me, listening to Him, clinging to Him, and walking with Him. If I have learned anything in the past 20 years it's that everything happens for a reason. I mean every tear, failure, heartache, struggle, hardship, loss of friendship/relationship. All of these things God has used to strengthen me, I have learned to listen to Him throughout the troubling moments and throughout the greatest moments of my life. Something that I can't stress enough is that God longs for a relationship with you in every day of your life. Not just when you land that perfect job, or marry that perfect spouse, but during the messy days when you are filled with worry.
So friends, live in the moment, live every moment with the One who created them. Don't miss what He has planned for you because you are stressing over your Bio final that you need to get an 95 on to get an A in the class, you're going to rock it. Talk to Him in every moment of your life and let Him know what is on your mind, He already knows, He wants you to bring it to Him allowing His presence to fill your life daily. I promise you won't regret it. Go treat yourself to some Chick-Fil-A, you deserve it.
