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Three Questions to Start Your Day

 

Mike Gifford

 

            The Lord has given each of us 24 hours in a day. Typically, the average adult will find his or her 24 hours divided up into time spent working, sleeping, and eating. Other activities that pop up include recreation, travel, and socialization. Each of these takes time. We are indeed a busy society.

 

Where in the aforementioned time-users is time for God? Should that be at the top of the list? Do our days end with thoughts of putting God at the head of the next day’s list? Are these thoughts repeated night after night as each day produces another round of activities that crowd God out of our schedule? In other words, does every day end with regret for not having given more time to God and a resolution to give more to Him the next day? DOES every day end that way for you? Would you like to change that? If so, here are three questions that might be helpful for you to ask yourself as each day begins.

Question 1: “What will I do today to grow spiritually?” Thinking this one through should be relatively simple. Paul wrote, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17). Most likely, the Bible is readily available in your home. Can you reach for it, open it and read it today? Any time spent in sincere study of God’s Word is profitable (II Timothy 3:16,17). The Lord said that His Word “shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11). Not only is spiritual growth readily available through the Bible, the ability to speak to the author of that wonderful work is afforded to every Christian night and day. I Thessalonians 5:17 exhorts, “Pray without ceasing.Proverbs 15:8 concludes, “the prayer of the upright is his delight.” The classic hymn sagely states, “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” With the resources to grow spiritually close at hand, what will we do today to avail ourselves of these blessed opportunities?

Question 2: “What will I do today to serve others?” Jesus said, “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:27-28). That Christians are to be servants is evident in the portrayal of judgment in Matthew 25:31-46. In that scene the Lord is reminding those who walked the earth that walking among them had been the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked and the prisoners. In short, there had been those in need. The scene shows that those commended by the Lord are those who served. Others, like that rich man in Luke 16:19-31, did not see that every day the opportunities to serve presented themselves. We can serve in so many ways. Our efforts are not limited to aiding those mentioned in the judgment scene of Matthew 25. With the daily abundance of opportunities to serve God by serving others, what will we do today to render service to our fellow man?

Question 3: “What will I do today to lead others to Christ?” The great commission of Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-16 is not limited to a select few. God did not commit the spreading of the Gospel to a chosen number who might happen to speak well, or who might be more outgoing, or who might be better able to remember Bible passages than some others. Paul told Timothy, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. (II Timothy 2:2). The only qualification in this verse regarding the type of person who is to be teaching is that they be faithful to God. Each of us has the ability to lead souls to Christ. God commanded Christians to be evangelistic. I John 5:3 says that “his commandments are not grievous.” The word “grievous” means “weighty or heavy.” God has not commanded us to do anything of which we are not capable. Is there something we can do today to lead a soul to Christ? Will we do it?

Starting the day with these three questions sets our agenda for our waking hours. Today you and I will be confronted by Satan’s attacks and we will need to overcome. Today you and I will walk among hurting men and women who need to know that someone cares about them. Today you and I will come in contact with fainting and scattered sheep who need to be led to the Shepherd of souls (Matthew 9:36-38; I Peter 2:25). How will we use this day in God’s service?