Day by Day

I've started reading Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot for my devotional again. It is such a wonderful book, filled with innumerable insights and pieces of wisdom. Today was about, you guessed it, keeping a quiet heart. Jesus, in his earthly career, was able to keep a quiet heart, to sleep through the storm without worry or fear, because he trusted his Father's plan for him. Do trust our Father's plan for us? We are brothers and sisters with Christ, children of the inheritance, because of His death on the cross. We share the same Father. Do we trust him with every day and everything that happens throughout that day? The countless interruptions, the little things that frustrate us, all of those things are planned by God and given to us as our daily portion. Each time something stands in our way, it is a gift from God to be used for his glory. When the car breaks down just as you needed to get somewhere, or the oven refuses to work right before dinner, or the computer crashes while you were working on an important project, it is hard to think of as being "part of the plan". But perhaps all of these things are the plan. Perhaps the project is not what is truly important, but rather how you deal with everything else today is what really matters. Can we trust the God who created the universe with the order and plan of our day to day lives? This hymn, written by Lina Sandell, is a wonderful testimony to trusting the Lord.

Day by Day

Day by Day, and with each passing moment,

Strength I find to meet my trials here;

Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,

I've no cause for worry or for fear.

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure

Gives unto each day what He deems best-

Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day, the Lord himself is near me

With a special mercy for each hour;

All my cares, He fain would bear, and cheer me,

He whose name is Counselor and Power;

The protection of his child and treasure

Is a charge that on Himself He laid;

"As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure",

This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in every tribulation,

So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,

That I lose not faith's sweet consolation

Offered me within Thy holy word.

Help me Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,

Ever to take, as from a Father's hand,

One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,

Till I reach the promise land.