May 20

“Years ago I came across this sentence in an old book:  ‘Never indulge, at the close of an action, in any self-reflective acts of any kind, whether of self-congratulations or of self-despair.  Forget the things that are behind, the moment they are past, leaving them with God.’”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough,  5/20

Several scriptures come to mind as I think about this quote:  from Paul's “forgetting what lies behind” (Philippians 3:13) to living one day at a time as Jesus’ prayer suggests when He said to pray for our bread daily.  The only time in my life that I truly lived this way was when I was caring for my ill mother in my home.  As her life hung in the balance I could not even begin to project what the next day held for me nor did I have the energy or time to reflect on the day before.  I could only look to that day.  I thought that by the end of that year I would be so practiced in that way of living that I would continue it, but I didn’t.  So it would seem that it is strictly a matter of the will that we must exercise moment by moment.  We must choose to leave all things in God’s Hands--not only the things that are past but also the things that are yet to come because as soon as we lay our hands on anything it already belongs to the past in that very next moment.  Each breath we draw in is replaced by one leaving.  The rhythm of our lives is the same.  If we can understand that each breath we take is from God, then we can grasp that each exhale is in His hands as well.  It is forever gone as far as we are concerned, but God is still using it in ways we may never comprehend in this life.

“Let everything that breathes praise the LORD!  Praise the LORD!  Psalm 150:6