By Charles Christmas

Two words, “today” and “daily,” relate to vitality, joy and fruitfulness in the life of a true child of God.

God is the God of today. He called himself “I Am,” not “I Was” or “I Will Be,” but “I Am.”

At the point when God was in the process of restoring Abraham to the faith journey, he announced to him, “I am Lord God Almighty (today),” and it was because of this reality that a worn-out 100 year-old husband and 90 year-old wife would be the primary instruments in God’s future plans.

The very essence of faith is to believe that God is the God of today, that God is able today, and he will respond as you make the decision to risk all upon his ability concerning what he is initiating in your life.

With this as a backdrop, God’s definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 becomes simple: “Faith is the assurance of what we certainly expect and the proof of what has not yet become reality.”

In Romans 4:17, the Bible says, “Abraham believed in the God who calls things that are not as though they were.” And that same God of today, for his glory, initiated by him and in Jesus’ name, can embolden some of us to speak that word of faith concerning things that are not as though they were.

Jesus is Christ of today. He called himself “I Am.” He said, “Before Abraham was, I Am” (John 8:58). He said: “I am the bread of life,” “I am the water of life,” “I am the light of the world,” “I am the door into the family of God,” “I am the good shepherd,” “I am the resurrection and the life,” “I am the true and living way,” and “I am the true vine.” He is still all of this today, and available to me, you and others.

God is inviting each of us to faith living for the now, for the today of our life. In faith living, good things happen in your mind, attitude, outlook and your responses which can only be explained by saying, “God, by his grace, did this.” Things can happen with you, around you, through you, to you, and maybe even for you, in which the only answer is God.

One of the many places God invites us to faith living in scripture is in Hebrew 3:7-19. Against the backdrop example of the wasted lives of hundreds of thousands of God’s people who refused to live the faith life, God tells us that his promise holds true today for us. “Believe me; risk all upon my ability, hear my voice calling today. If you will hear my voice, do not harden your hearts.”

God is at work today. What new thing has he done in your life today or recently? The Bible refers several times to believers having a new song, and often it is about something new and special that a child of God has experienced. Do you have a new song, meaning a testimonial of God’s specific new work in or with you? God speaks to me loudly and clearly from Isaiah 43:18-19: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

God urges us to let him work in us and through us today, without hesitation, procrastination or unbelief. Jesus said, “Do not hesitate and procrastinate and say ‘four months later and we will harvest,’ but open your eyes and look on the fields that are ripe for harvest.” The disciples asked Jesus, “Who caused this man to be in the condition he is in: himself, his family?” Jesus said in essence, “Please!”

Right now, can we just forget for a while about the “who” and the “why,” and let’s get busy with the “how” we may help him and how we may help him today. Let’s see this as an open door for the work of God to be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him that sent me. Night is coming when we cannot work.” Yes, the time is short for me, and nothing but a God work, a faith work, will be pleasing to God or satisfying to me or to you.

I will plan to get to that word “daily” in my next column.

—Charles Christmas is a religion columnist for The Clanton Advertiser. His column appears each Thursday.