Every Day God Gives Us Is A Gift

"Every Day God Gives Us Is A Gift" – Psalm 118:24 “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” The study is born of a phrase the pastor says she wrote down days earlier: “my present is what I am.” Everything follows from it. We think we have millions of days on the earth, and we do not: they are numbered, and each one is a gift God is pleased to give. What was not fulfilled today, the deed we should have done today, the purpose God had for today: if it goes unfulfilled, we were not grateful for the day given us. And the days are squandered in complaint, in lament, in bad temper. The study then walks through the doctrine of trial: trials are not punishment but formation, and they teach the way a class teaches the student who pays attention; they work patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. It passes through the forty years in the desert, which were to know what was in the heart, and through the “after that ye have suffered a while” of 1 Peter 5:10. And it reaches the practical center: take no thought for tomorrow, because anxiety kills the present, and a present not lived will not help the future either. It closes with the “now is” of 2 Corinthians 6:2 and with the sowing that does not faint in Galatians 6:9-10.

I. When God chooses, He does strong things.

A. The sad thing is that what is called church settles for the common and the ordinary.

1. We do not go into the depths of what we must live and know.

2. It is not about being one more, but about being the chosen who are willing to war.

3. I cannot stay with what I learned yesterday: my life keeps growing.

4. Not because it hurts, but because it is knowing God more as time passes.

B. A moment comes when one must settle where one ought already to be.

1. I cannot be lukewarm nor cold, nor live by what I think or claim.

2. The natural body is not accustomed to developing a life in the spirit.

3. You do not come to church to be coddled: you come to be a spiritual man or woman.

4. The process of growth will be pain, but with comfort: every life passes through pain.

II. Every day is a gift.

A. You make plans for the future; I live the present, the moment.

1. What we did not achieve today, the purpose God had for today: unfulfilled, we were ungrateful.

2. Do you think you have life because you are on the earth? Each day is a gift God is pleased to give.

3. We do not have millions of days: they are numbered, and the angels count them.

4. They see how we thank Him for the day He gives us.

B. “My present is what I am.”

1. This day is marked in heaven by God.

2. As the days are lost, there is no sowing; without sowing there is no harvest nor fruit.

3. And without fruit the hands are empty: life is lost with empty hands.

4. They are squandered in complaint, in lament, in bad temper.

C. It does not matter whether the day brings trials or gladness.

1. It is still an opportunity to see the goodness and faithfulness of God.

2. Life is at no one’s feet: it is in God’s hand, who gave the breath.

3. If He has been faithful, why not be faithful to Him?

III. Count it all joy (James 1:2-4).

A. Life is no trifle, and eighty percent of what is spoken is.

1. We have not the will to carry the truth of Jesus Christ in our mouth.

2. We carry our desires, our pretensions, what annoys us, what troubles us.

B. Mary knew that every day Jesus spent on earth was a day God permitted.

1. When they kill Him, she runs to the tomb: God was giving her that day.

2. And there the joy of her life returned, because He had already risen.

3. Sin is taken for granted, because that is a delight to the human being.

4. The disciples were hidden and afraid; she did not know fear.

C. Trials are not punishments: they are formation.

1. Look at your own back, and there is not one stripe on it.

2. Trials educate you: bear them, do not flee like a coward.

3. The star student is the one who is taught by what he learns.

4. They are not to destroy us, but to strengthen our faith.

IV. Tribulation worketh patience (Romans 5:3-5).

A. And patience, experience; and experience, hope.

1. We are schooling our character, our impulses, our opinions.

2. And do you know what will happen? We will be still.

3. We need polishing, because we think too highly of ourselves.

B. Trials are the process by which God forms Christian character.

1. Since we do not want them, we defend ourselves and blame someone.

2. We learned a character: we speak the words of mother, of father, of the neighbor.

3. But God makes a different character in each one, and deals one by one.

4. He has no interest in doing it before the crowd so the crowd may see.

C. Without trial there is no maturity nor firm faith.

1. If in trials you only fret and complain, you will not develop maturity.

2. To carry anger and bear it every day: then there is no laughter, no peace.

3. Peter, John and Paul had to learn the character of Christ.

4. Peter was left with the face of the Master, and he never forgot it.

D. To Paul, God gave days as a gift, to form him.

1. The day He had for him was the day they would behead him, having everything.

2. Peter asked to be crucified head down, not as the Master was.

3. You measure it as cruel; but it was a gift, because Peter had denied Him.

4. And John lived many years, because he stayed passionate after Jesus.

V. To know what was in thine heart (Deuteronomy 8:2).

A. Why did Israel go through the desert? To know: that one may know what is in oneself.

1. From Egypt to Israel the road was short; but they began to defy.

2. Every circuit was so they would know what was inside them.

3. To bring them to repentance, that they might understand God wanted them as His people.

4. But they rebelled, and wanted to destroy Moses.

B. Only those twenty and under reached the promised land.

1. All the rest perished, because they could not bear the trial.

2. The forty years were so that there might be repentance.

3. But a trial can also be taken so as to harden the heart.

4. When we bring Him all our wickedness, He forgives us and raises us up.

VI. After that ye have suffered a while (1 Peter 5:10).

A. See how it says: “after.”

1. We are in that process of suffering, each one for his inner being.

2. Grace is undeserved favor, free kindness: it is received.

3. It is a gift from God’s heart: He gave salvation and forgave all our sin.

B. God has many gifts in His grace.

1. I do not want my life to dry up: what does the earth have to give us as a gift?

2. God gives beautiful days to see His miracles, His power and His glory.

3. May we have new songs in our mouths and a wholly different speech.

4. We can go out that door the same, or we can go out changed.

C. “Let patience have her perfect work”: do not give up halfway.

1. When patience matures, God perfects our faith and our character.

2. To be entire is to have traits of conduct that mark you out.

3. What do people think of you? What do they think of you at home?

4. The face is transformed, and even the bearing: what is of God comes out.

VII. Take no thought for the morrow (Matthew 6:34).

A. If anything should concern you, it is your present: today, the hour, the minute.

1. And that care is no anxiety: it is God’s will, which knows how to bring us to perfection.

2. Many things have become important to you, and your present has been annulled.

3. If you do not bring your children to the present, you drag them into yours; and yours will be your pain.

4. Trials do not weaken us: they complete us in the Lord’s hands.

B. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

1. If you cannot fulfill today, do you think what you await will be fulfilled?

2. Let us come out of the pain of the past to appear in the present.

3. I cannot hold last week’s pain: I live my present.

4. “I have suffered much”: and what did you get from it? Lament and complaint.

C. Jesus teaches trust in provision and not to be ruled by anxiety.

1. Anxiety is anticipated dread: the heart burdened by the uncertain.

2. That anxiety kills our present; and that present will not help the future.

3. Worry over the future robs the peace God wants to give us today.

4. Each day brings its challenge, and God gives grace to face them one at a time.

D. Let us not carry today the problem that does not yet exist.

1. “My son is going to this university, my son will do this”: that is harmful.

2. And do you think one is then able to hear the voice of God?

3. Jesus does not deny difficulty: He teaches that God provides daily strength.

4. Faith is lived day by day: in a block it is heavy, day by day it is light.

VIII. Now is the accepted time (2 Corinthians 6:2).

A. Paul cites Isaiah 49:8: God promises to hear and help in the opportune moment.

1. The accepted time is the moment God opens the door of His mercy.

2. Paul stresses that this moment is not future: it is now.

3. God’s call is not for some day, but for today.

4. Because no one is assured of tomorrow: life is the day, the moment.

B. Each day we hear His voice is a divine opportunity to be transformed.

1. We must not postpone faith, nor repentance, nor obedience.

2. God is always ready to receive, forgive and restore.

IX. Let us not be weary in well doing (Galatians 6:9-10).

A. Even when results are not immediately seen.

1. To serve, to help or to forgive can tire; but God sees all we do with love.

2. Though no one acknowledges it, the Lord rewards in His time.

3. To reap is to cut the wheat and gather the harvest.

4. “If we faint not”: because the trouble is that we give up.

B. Every sowing has its harvest: it is the law of sowing and reaping.

1. Sometimes God does not pay at once, but never forgets those who persevere.

2. “In due season” means God’s perfect time, not ours.

3. Christian good is for all, without distinction.

4. And there is a special call to care for and support our spiritual family.