Beyond Today

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The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, but the purpose of the first step is the whole journey. It is not the other way around.
Os Guinness

Some advice for you as you continue life's journey:

Know Your Purpose
What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8

What is my goal? What is my chief end? It is essential to recognize that I am created in the image of God for the purpose of reflecting His image. Sin marred that image, but through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that image can be restored. Sovereign grace regenerates me so that I can believe and empowers me so that I can reflect the image of God.
Susan Hunt

Set Priorities
He asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
Mark 12:28-31

We can exalt diet over duty, dress over devotion, work over witness, music over motive, form over function-the list is endless. Instead, may we put God first, and demonstrate that by consistently spending time with Him in His Word and in prayer.
Tom Elliff

Find Strength
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13

Recognize your weaknesses and rely totally on God's resources. Then He will hear your prayers and minister to your needs. That's where happiness begins. John MacArthur

Work Hard
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.
Colossians 3:23

Work challenges us-makes us grow in character, skill, and creativity. Learning to take responsibility for hard work, day-in and day-out over the long haul, develops perseverance, one of the major traits God wants to build into our lives.
Lael F. Arrington

Take Time to Rest
Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him.
Psalm 37:7

When we are suffering from too much work or the hubbub of lots of people in our days, it is so sweet to withdraw in peace and quietness. For those of us who know Jesus, this can be our most recreational place. There we find ourselves in green pastures with sweet water to drink.
Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Stick With It!
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

Life can knock the stuffing out of us. Testing and temptation can surface in different ways and different places in our lives. It can be a pathway to fearful, dark thoughts. It can be an excuse to enter the soggy marsh of self-pity. Or simply the quest to "get even" that starts out looking like justice. Testing is an individual matter. But God promises, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. 10:13, NKJV).
Nancie Carmichael

Know that God will be with You Beyond Today . . .
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:8

God really is there. He really does exist, and He made us for Himself. Knowing that He is there, and therefore that we do not live in a silent universe, changes everything. To know that we can speak, and there is Someone who will answer fills the vacuum of life that would otherwise be present. And then, when we realize His love for us as individuals-that Christ really did die for us as individuals, for us personally-life is entirely different.
Francis A. Schaeffer

[God] does not change. He will be tomorrow as He was yesterday. We can depend on Him to be faithful, reliable, trustworthy. He has said He understands us. We are told that the promises He made centuries ago are just as true today-not just true in the academic sense of truth, but true to you and me personally. His truth makes a difference in our present lives, as well as to our part and place in eternity.
Edith Schaeffer

Excerpted from Beyond Today, ©2000 by Good News Publishers/Crossway Books.

© 2002-2005 Good News Publishers. Used by permission.
Translated by permission of Good News Publishers
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