Every morning when we get up and look at our day, we face things that need to be done, people to see or speak to, and choices to be made. Some of those things we will enjoy, some we will do easily and some will present us with fresh challenges. As we start each day, we would love to feel that we will live it well, bringing glory to Jesus, and that we will sense His ‘well done’ at the days’ end.
I guess none of us face things, at the beginning of our day, the size of the daunting task that Moses had when he was commissioned to take the people of Israel into the promised land. Like Moses, however, we may well want to say to God, as we face the day with its’ ‘unknowns’ and challenges, ‘If your presence does not go with me, do not send us up from here’. Exodus 33 : 15.
Moses had previously asked the question at the start of his commission, “when the Israelites ask me the name of this God who has sent me, then what shall I tell them?” Exodus 3 : 13,14, God gave him that wonderful answer “I AM who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you”
The Amplified Bible expands that statement to ‘I AM who I AM and what I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE’. J.D. Douglas in the New Bible dictionary, explains that ‘this name signifies the active presence of the person in the fullness of the revealed character’. In other words ‘Moses, I am actively present and involved with you, with whatever of my manifold attributes you need in any given moment’.
The good news for us is that we know that our God is with us, He is our Immanuel, and has said ‘Never will I leave you : never will I forsake you’ Hebrews 13 : 5, So we too can say ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid’ 13 : 6. We can face anything in any day, knowing that the Lord is with us, and that the indwelling Holy Spirit, our helper, is with us too.’
I believe as we scan each day in the morning, we can thank God for all that He is going to be for us during that day. And as we thank Him, we are actually confessing our faith in the Lords promise to be all that we need Him to be. Our personal great I AM. We can thank Him in advance that He will give us the wisdom we will need for situation X, the patience we will need in situation Y, for courage, love, endurance etc and grace for the unexpected and unanticipated.
We can thank Him that He will help us with our choices for using our time, and that ‘as our day is, so will our strength be’. Deuteronomy 33 : 25. That He will provide whatever we will need, for whatever is coming our way, through our new life in Christ.
Is this just presumptuous, or a real expression of faith? Well, when we get on a bus and pay our fare in advance, we do so because we believe the bus is going to take us to where it says on the front. I believe in the same way, thanking God in advance for all that we need Him to be for us in the day ahead, is in fact believing that, i) He is who He says He is, ii) That He will do what He says He will do, and iii) That He will be in and for us all that we need Him to be.
Let us then walk through the day with Jesus, enjoying His presence, drawing on Him in each situation, with thanksgiving, ‘banking’ or building up our faith for the grace to draw on throughout the day.
