You have heard me say several time that one of my basic axioms of life is you will never be what you are not becoming, but you will be what you are becoming. That may sound a little confusing, but it is really very simple. John Quincy Adams expressed it well in his speech before the Supreme Court in 1841 when he said, We understand now, that we’ve been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding, that who we are is who we were. That is one of my favorite quotes for many reasons, but one is that it captures the idea that we are the accumulation of all of our days.
If we grow up to be great doctors, lawyers, athletes, or musicians, but do not honor and obey God, we have failed. If we are a success in the world but are not faithful followers of Christ, it is all in vain. Not that we can not be those things and honor God, but that if we are those things and do not honor God we have lost! Remember, Ecclesiastes 1:3-4 says, What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
About the most important thing in your life is to build a foundation for who you are supposed to be in the three main relationships: Relationship to God, Relationship to Family, Faithfulness to Fellowship. The question is, what are you doing today to be who God created and called you to be? You will only be what you are becoming today. Let me give you some examples of how this applies to your every day life – today!
You will only have the relationship with God that you are developing today. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Jesus brought it forward in Matthew 22:37, And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Godliness does not just happen with age, nor does it happen over night. It is characterized biblically as a walk because it is a long progression in a deliberate direction; characterized by obedience and devotion, one day at a time.
You will only have the relationship with your spouse and family that you are developing today.
Ephesians 5 and 6 have a great deal to say about having a godly family; Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
How you handle relationships today will affect your relationship with your spouse. If you are fickle and jumping around now, you will be inclined to those kinds of relationships then. If he is abusive and controlling now, then he will probably be more so then. If you are dishonest and selfish now, then you will fight that mode of operation as an adult. You will only view your children with the perspective you are developing today. How do you view children? Are they a blessing from God, or a burden, or a curse? The Bible views them as a gift from God, a crown and a blessing.
You will only have the relationship with the local church fellowship that you are developing today. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. We can not be part-time churchgoers any more than we can be part-time believers. What is your relationship to the local church today? Are you stirring up something other than love and good works, or are you in the habit of neglecting to meet together? Your relationship with the church today will affect your relationship later. Your role in the church today will affect your role in the church later. Your response to the church today will affect your response to the church later.
You will only become what God created and called you to be, by being what He created and called you to be today. You can only not waste your life by not wasting today! Where are you even promised tomorrow? Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today, because you can not become tomorrow what you are not becoming today!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Reid
