12 Living and Serving in the Present Tense
12
Living and Serving in the Present Tense
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:2
History is so often being rewritten these days that we may not know exactly what has happened in the past; and since we are not omniscient, we cannot predict the future accurately. However, there is still good news: Right now, in this present hour, God gives us the privilege of making decisions that may alter some of the consequences of the past and also help establish some exciting new directions for the future. “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Now! Today!
God wants His children to live a day at a time, in the present tense, trusting in His guidance and grace. “Give us this day” applies not only to our daily bread but also to everything else involved in our day-by-day pilgrim journey. From the first day of creation, the Lord ordained that our galaxy function a day at a time as Planet Earth makes its annual trip around the sun. The next time you say, “I wish I had more time,” remind yourself that we all have the same amount of time—twenty-four hours a day—and that perhaps we should be saying, “I wish I had more control over my time.” This means being wise and “making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15–16).
On April 24, 1859, the American naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal, “Now or never! You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” In the first chapter of Walden, Thoreau wrote, “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity,” a remarkable statement from a man who “signed off” from the church early in his life. But he is right: if we thought more about eternity, we would certainly use our time more wisely.
Time is one of our most precious treasures, a moment-by-moment gift from God, and it’s a shame to spend it carelessly or waste it foolishly. With the Lord’s help, we can transform time into service, learning, wealth, pleasure, health, and spiritual growth. Even though we appreciate what Jesus did for us yesterday and eagerly anticipate what He will do in the future, the key words for the church are now and today. After all, our Savior “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8), and as we have learned from His I AM statements, He is the Jesus of the present tense.
The four gospels report what Jesus “began to do and to teach” in His physical body while on earth (Acts 1:1), but the word began indicates that He wants to continue to “do and to teach” today through His spiritual body, the church. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (ch. 2) was a beginning, not an ending, and the Spirit wants to work through us today. Quoting from Psalm 95, the Holy Spirit says in Hebrews 3:7–11:
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.” So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
“The rebellion” refers to Israel’s disobedience that began at Kadesh Barnea when they refused to trust the Lord and claim their inheritance in Canaan (Num. 13–14). That rebellion continued for the next thirty-eight years as the nation wandered in the wilderness until the unbelieving older generation died off. The disobedience of ten leaders corrupted the nation and eventually led to a long funeral march.
My wife and I have had our share of tests and trials during our years of ministry, times when we alone or we and our people were tempted to give up instead of trusting God to keep things going. We praise God for giving us His promises from the Word and also for surrounding us with praying people who walked by faith and whose prayers, joined with ours, helped to see us through.
When Israel in unbelief rebelled against God, part of the problem was the people’s focus on the past and their repeated desire to go back to Egypt. They remembered the food they ate and the security they enjoyed because somebody took care of them, but they forgot the daily bondage, humiliation, and hopelessness. Another cause of their unbelief was fear of the future, because they didn’t really believe they could defeat their enemies in Canaan and claim the land. Ten of the twelve spies who surveyed the land said that, when they saw the “giants” inhabiting the area, they themselves looked like grasshoppers. They were walking by sight, not by faith, and forgot the promises of God.
In other words, they had hardened their hearts, and a hard heart usually leads to a rebellious heart. The Israelites had seen in Egypt what God could do, and yet they refused to trust Him and obey His word. When we deliberately ignore God’s demonstrations of love and power and willfully go our own way, we are tempting God and asking Him to discipline us.
Five familiar words tell us how to avoid that repulsive sin and trustfully live in the present tense day by day, with and for our Lord Jesus Christ.