Give Us Today - 2

Give Us Today - 2

Subject – Time to Let Yesterday Go

By Rick Welborne

Matthew 6:6-15 (NLT2)
⁶  But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
⁷  “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.
⁸  Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
⁹  Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
¹⁰  May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
¹¹  Give us today the food we need,
¹²  and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
¹³  And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
¹⁴  “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
¹⁵  But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. 

Philippians 3:13 (NKJV)
¹³  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

--From 1837 until 1901, Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire. Her 63-year reign set the record in Britain only to be broken by great-grand-daughter Queen Elizabeth II. Victoria’s name – The Victorian Age.

--Not long after assuming the throne, Queen Victoria fell in love with Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel. She proposed to him 5 days after he arrived at the castle. 

--They were married on February 10, 1840. The following is her entry into her diary about her wedding day:

Queen Victoria – I never, never spent such an evening!! My Dearest Dearest Dear Albert…his excessive love and affection gave me feelings of heavenly love and happiness I could have never hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again! His beauty, his sweetness and gentleness--- really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! To be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before—was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!

--What tenderness…nine months later she gave birth to her name sake, Princess Victoria. She was not fond of being pregnant and she thought newborns were ugly.

--That being said, she and Prince Albert had nine children…I am just guessing that dear Albert’s “excessive love and affection” had something to do with that. Just saying.

--The royal couple had been married 21 years when Prince Albert contracted typhoid fever and died. Victoria went into a period of profound grief from which she would never recover.

--She had his room turned into a shrine. Every day for the rest of her life, she had the linens on Albert’s bed changed, his clothes laid out, and a basin of water poured for his morning shave. She slept with his night shirt.

--We experience a piece of us dying when we lose a loved one but Victoria stopped living altogether. She only wore black the rest of her life. She died 1/22/1901, but she stopped living December 14, 1861. 14,283 days.

--I wish Victoria was the exception to the rule, but we all know she is not. Most people stop living before they breathe their last. They become prisoners of past mistakes, past hurts, past offenses. 

--If you live long enough you will experience profound pain and suffering. There is no escaping this reality. Life is unfair, and then you die. Slightly depressing. The good news, you can move past your past!

--Our culture is not good at dealing with grief. We have to face it and learn its lessons for us to go forward.

Sir Walter Osler – So many people are so overwhelmed by so many things. We’re paralyzed by things we cannot change—the past. We’re crippled by things we cannot control—the future. The solution? Let go of “dead yesterdays” and “unborn tomorrows.”

1. We Have to Let Go of Dead Yesterdays.

Philippians 3:13 (NKJV)
¹³  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

--The Jews had a wonderful way of grieving. They would allow for a pre-determined amount of days for two different kinds of grieving.

--When Job was grieving the loss of his children, his friends sat with him in silence for seven days. This week long period for close relatives is a Jewish ritual called Shiva. Take note, they sat in silence.

--Too many people say way too much to people who have lost a loved one. A pastor friend of mine told a family who just lost their 16-year-old son…Why are you crying, he is in heaven with Jesus? 

--He wanted to know why I kicked him. Yes, their son is in heaven but they will not see him graduate from high school, college, get married, have children. Hug him and hold him before he sleeps.

--People need an extra measure of grace during this time. Silence. Just say, I love you and can I get you anything? That’s enough. We give them space to breathe because their hearts are broken. Pray…

Matthew 6:9-11 (NLT2)
⁹  Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
¹⁰  May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
¹¹  Give us today…

--How do we get through this kind of pain and grief? Father, give me today. Help me today to deal with this pain. Help me today to trust You and to not allow my heart to be wounded or bitter.

--I believe I have some right to speak to this matter because I have dealt with it personally and in my 35 years here I have done close to 420 funerals/memorials. 

--It hurts when you truly love family and friends who leave us to go on to heaven. With God’s help, you can get through it and you can continue living, not just existing. Hopefully we still believe this:

2 Corinthians 5:8-9 (NKJV)
⁸  We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
⁹  Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 

--When we are experiencing profound grief, pain, and a broken heart, whether from the loss of a loved one, a betrayal, an unexpected tragedy, we have to pray…Father, give me today. Get me thru today.

2. We Owe It to Everyone to Pray for God’s Help Each Day.

--This may be a shock for someone to hear today but life does not stop for those around you just because you are going through something terrible. It may be your time of greatest influence.

Romans 14:7-8 (NKJV)
⁷  For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
⁸  For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

--Queen Victoria owed it to her empire to keep living, to keep leading. She owed to her children who needed her so much. She owed to Prince Albert. So important, she owed to herself to keep living. 

Romans 1:14 (NCV)                                                                                                                                               ¹⁴  I have a duty to all people—Greeks and those who are not Greeks, the wise and the foolish.

--Please don’t misunderstand me, we all should take time to grieve, to hurt, to process what we have been through but if we will ever be healed, and we can be, we must pray, Father, give me today.

--When we fail to bury our dead yesterdays whatever they were or how bad they hurt, we are not just cheating ourselves.

--We are cheating those who could be touched by our influence and our touch. Hear your pastor, we also cheat God because we are saying we can’t trust Him or believe He can give us this day.

3. Keep Straining Forward and Keep Praying, Give Me Today.

Philippians 3:12-15 (NCV)
¹² I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason He made me His.
¹³  Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead,
¹⁴  I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.
¹⁵  All of us who are spiritually mature should think this way, too. And if there are things you do not agree with, God will make them clear to you. 

--Let’s face it, none of us are all God wants us to be. We have not arrived by any means but we keep trying and why we keep praying…Give me today.

--Yesterday is done and tomorrow is still unknown but today I can apply myself to strain forward through whatever it is I am going through. I am preaching to myself as much as I am you.

--He made me His, not so I would lay down and die or give up. But that I might trust Him to do in me, and thru me, what He can today. One day at a time, Sweet Jesus, that is all I am asking of You.

I'm only human, I'm just a woman…Help me believe in what I could be…And all that I am. 

Show me the stairway, 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…Just give me the strength 

To do every day what I have to do…Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus…And tomorrow may never be mine. 

Lord help me today, show me the way…One day at a time…Do you remember, when you walked among men? 

Well Jesus you know if you're looking below…It's worse now, than then. Cheating and stealing, violence and crime…So 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…Just give me the strength…To do every day what I have to do. 

Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus…And tomorrow may never be mine. 

Lord help me today, show me the way…One day at a time.