Genesis 2: 2-3, Acts 2: 42-47, Job 13:15, Psalm 118: 22-24

One day with God produces more

Ever had one of those days where you play your hand and God totally gazumps you?! I love those days! "The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes" (Ps 118:23). The psalmist got it right when he said, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere" (Ps 84:10). One day devoted to God can produce more fruit, peace and joy than we can attain in a lifetime by ourselves.

Imagine the difference it would make if every 24 hours ahead of you were lived devoted to God. The pattern of our everyday life would paint the outline of an awesome future for God to colour in just as he has determined.

A pattern is only produced through its repetition or continuation. Our destiny will be the product of doing the right thing long enough, and true world changers develop over time. Jesus didn't ask you to be a 'one hit wonder', he asked you to follow him in your everyday life. The people in Acts 'continued' to meet together, developing a pattern which then invoked blessing. There was a consistency and resolution in their hearts towards God and one another. What do you do on a consistent basis, which will inevitably determine your future?

Read the paragraph below and allow it to provoke your thinking:

Who am I? I am your greatest companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things I do you might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly; I am easily managed, you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great individuals and alas of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine, plus the intelligence of a human. You may run me for a profit or run me for ruin - it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you. WHO I AM? Answer? - Habits.

An English poet once said, "We first make our habits - then our habits make us!" Habits are the basis of who we are and who we want to be. They can control our now and consequently dictate our outcome. Habits are those things we CONTINUE to do. Be inspired today to live every day devoted to God and continue to put him first in thought and action.