Carpe Diem – Seize the Day! / Mrs Karen Caviness

 

Mrs Karen Caviness

Pastor's Wife

Victory Baptist Church

Roseburg, OR

 

 





Carpe Diem – Seize the Day!

I recently had yet another birthday. It seems like the older I get, the faster time flies by. It’s hard to believe that 2015 is now halfway gone. It should be our desire to make every day count. We shouldn’t squander away the precious time God has given us. He tells us in His word to “redeem the time”.
 Eph. 5:16  Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
 Col. 4:5      Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
Instead of just floating through each day with a “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be” attitude; we need to start each morning determined to seize the day! To do so, we need to:

1.  Rejoice in the day – Psalm 118:24  This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will     rejoice and be glad in it.
 Do you let the circumstances of each day dictate whether or not you will have a good day? Sometimes we start our day off frustrated and in a foul spirit because we are having a bad hair day. Do you really want something as silly as the protein growing out of your head to control what kind of day you are going to have? But it may be something much more serious that is trying to steal your joy: a serious illness, a broken heart or some other storm of life that you are facing. 
 To rejoice in the day we need to realize, first of all, it could be worse. Our trials seem so huge until we put them in prospective. I had a friend who was gloomy because her first child had left for Bible college and she would not see her for several months. I told her of another friend who just shared with me her broken heart over her daughter who has turned her back on God and is living in rebellion and sin with her lesbian partner. Suddenly she was thankful for her situation instead of gloomy. The familiar phrase, “I complained because I had no shoes, then I met a man that had no feet,” is a good reminder of this truth.
 Secondly, if we are going to rejoice in the day we need to remember - God sees the big picture. We can’t always see the reasons why God allows things to happen in our day. We just need to trust Him and rest in the knowledge that He knows what we need and what is best for us. After 911 I read of several different employees at the twin towers that were late for work that day because of frustrating circumstances. One person had a flat on the way to work, a lady could not find her keys, a man wore a new pair of shoes that day that rubbed a blister on his foot and he had to stop and buy band-aids. In each case the person’s life was saved because of the frustrating, delaying circumstance. We won’t know until heaven how many times God’s hand of protection has been on us and we were frustrated and grumbling over the very circumstances used to protect us.

2.  Prioritize the day – I Cor. 14:40  Let all things be done decently and in order.
 If we do not prioritize the day then we seem to do those things that are screaming at us to get done or that our flesh enjoys doing. This results in coming to the end of the day and
realizing that the laundry may be done and the dishes are clean but no time was spent with your children teaching and training them. You had no time to connect with your husband today. Or perhaps it is late and you are just too sleepy to have any time in your Bible and prayer now, but you did spend an hour on Facebook and who know’s how long on Pinterest. 
 Matt. 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
 The order of our life should be: God, family, ministry, occupation, recreation. Too many times that order gets totally flipped around. You may say, “But I am a faithful Christian busy serving the Lord.” If we aren’t careful we can even get out of order in our service. We become a Martha and neglect our Mary time sitting at the feet of Jesus. It doesn’t matter how many hours we pour into ministry, if we are not building a strong relationship with our own children and taking the necessary time to train them then we are out of order. Make sure to keep each day in priority.

Redeem the time. Make each day count. Seize the day!