One Day At A Time

I grew up hearing the song "One Day At A Time, Sweet Jesus". It was the Christy Lane version. I am pretty sure Momma sang it on several occasions. Despite the many times I have heard the song, the lyrics came to mind last night as a I prayed and it was like a cartoon light bulb popped up above my head. This is the first verse:

"I'm only human I'm just a woman
Help me to believe in what I could be and all that I am
Show me the stairway that I have to climb
Lord for my sake teach me to take one day at a time
One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine
So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time"

This song from my childhood speaks volumes to me right now. I am reading "The Unlimited Power of Faith" by David Oyedepo and yesterday I read these words. "I've always told people, 'I'm not afraid of tomorrow, because we didn't get to where we are today by chance; we got here by God." That phrase speaks to trusting God...one day at a time.

Teach Me To Take One Day At A Time

I am a big picture kind of person. I think that is why I often stumble in my walk of faith. God requires me to trust Him and exercise faith. Doubt tends to creep in when I can't see the how of something being accomplished. Healing is easier for me to grasp because it is something I have seen and experienced personally. I also find medicine a mystery anyway so I suppose not really much of a stretch of the faith muscle. When we talk of provision and protection it is harder for me to lay hold of the promise in faith. Not because I do not believe He is able, more because I do not believe I am worthy or even still I just don't see how it can happen.

I have always put a lot of trust in intellect. As an insecure girl, being smart was my trump card to not being the prom queen. It's a natural defense mechanism that often made me come off as a snobby, better-than-you type person. (Really not proud of that.) The fact is that intellect is often cold. It's facts that can be proven on some level. David Oyedepo states, "It is faith that gives value to knowledge, because it's only what you believe (not what you know) that you become." Ouch.

I have believed a lot of things about myself, my capabilities and the capabilities of others. All that knowledge I obtained is worthless if I do not have faith in it. So here it is...I don't have a faith problem. I act upon faith everyday. Faith in knowledge I have acquired to do my job, to cook, to parent, and so on. I just have to shift the focus. I have to step out, take action on the knowledge I have of God. (Why do I make these things so complicated in my head?)

Help Me Believe In What I Could Be and All That I Am

I have prayer points in my planner. Each day at lunch I read some scripture, a section out of my current book of choice, and I pray different prayer points. One of the elements of my daily prayer I took from author Lisa Bevere, "Behold your daughter. I come to do your will. May all that has written of me in your word, be realized in my life as I lay hold of Your Word by speaking and expressing it through my life." Then I pray the prayer of Jabez, "Oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil." Nearly everyday I pray this, but not until my recent reading did it really strike me that the issue in the application of faith in my life is not my faith in God and what he can do. It is more about my faith in what God can and will do in me or through me.

God has plans for each and every one of us. He's got this. When we (by we I mean I) get anxious about the "how" part...we just need to pray and accept the mercy and grace our God bestows on us. He knows my weakness far better than I do. So how about we start taking things one day at a time?