2 Corinthians 6:1-2 (NIV): As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
NOW is the time of God’s favor; NOW is the day of salvation. It seems that a lot of Christians these days are so focused on the future, fearful over what is going to happen, or hopeful about Jesus’ return, that they completely miss out on today.
God is not worried about the future. He has everything all planned out, and it will happen just the way that He has it planned. Evil WILL be defeated, the devil and all of his henchmen WILL be relegated to the lake of fire, and the righteous will be vindicated, and will experience life in His presence forever. All of that will happen as surely as He is God. Nobody needs to worry or fret about it; nobody needs to spend one moment of their day struggling to persuade Him to do it, or frustrated that it is not being done on their time schedule. God is on the job. He is working His plan, and it WILL happen.
What all of this focus on the future does is to take God’s people out of action today. With our eyes so locked on the future, we walk right past a hundred opportunities each day to be involved in what God is doing right now, today, in the present. Every day, there are dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of people right next to us in line, in the next cubicle or next chair, on the other end of the phone, or looking at our Facebook page, who desperately need to hear about God, about Jesus. But unless we are consciously living in the present reality of the kingdom of God, we won’t see the opportunity, won’t think about sharing, won’t speak or write the words of life, and the opportunity will be lost.
The future is handled. God needs His people to actively live and work for the kingdom in the present, every day He gives us breath. It is what He has us here for. It is our mission.
Father, forgive us for not having our mind in the game, in YOUR game, each and every today. Give us eyes that see every opportunity. But even more importantly, give us all hearts that care enough about the people all around us that we look intentionally for those opportunities. Help us to live for you, today. Amen.