How important can a single moment in time be? If God is eternal and our souls were created as eternal and if we persist even after our bodies die then weighed against all eternity how much does one single moment matter? For God, who is our eternal creator, it turns out that it isn’t so much the moments that matter but what we choose to do in those moments that make the difference.
We matter to God. Us. All things were created for His pleasure and we are the pinnacle of that creation story. How we choose to spend our moments and the decisions that we make with the time that we have been given matter very much, both to God and to us. It is all too easy to take our time for granted and to take the love and blessings that He bestows on us for granted along with it. Unless we decide, day by day and moment by moment, to orient ourselves towards His perfect plan we will be spending our moments in vain and living a life that is so much less than it could be.
But even after we have decided to give ourselves fully to God and His way, it does not make the spending of our precious time and those finite moments any easier. If anything, it gets even more difficult because now the powers of darkness have set themselves against us and we become soldiers under fire in a battle of spiritual warfare. Anything and everything that the enemy can do to tempt us, distract us, discourage us or disqualify us they can and will surely do.
I don’t know about you, but I have experienced a lot of those types of moments recently. Moments where I could literally feel the darkness pressing against my heart and my mind, screaming at me to yield and to submit to something that God would not have me do. And my flesh, our flesh, is not strong enough to resist that kind of attack on its own. Without the power of Christ in us in the form of His Holy Spirit we would never be able to withstand those temptations and remain victorious for God.
In one of those moments recently I was reminded of a song, by the Newsboys, called “Stay Strong”. Here’s what the song says and why I found it to be so comforting:
You’re in the moment now
A bitter root
A wandering eye and then
The ties that bind start wearing thin, thin
You’re in the moment now
When all you’ve been blessed with
Is not enough
Here’s where the ground gets loose
Here’s where the devils call your bluff
Stay strong
You are not lost
Come on and fix your eyes ahead
There’s a new dawn to light our day, our day
You’ve gotta stay strong
You and I run
For the prize that lies ahead
We’ve come too far to lose our way, our way
We’ve seen the tragic flaws
The tortured souls
The saints with feet of clay
Here’s where sin becomes cliche’
We’ve come through wilderness and watched
The cloud by day
The burning sky into dawn
Have you forgotten who you are?
Did you forget whose trip you’re on?
Stay strong
You are not lost
Come on and fix your eyes ahead
There’s a new dawn to light our day, our day
We’ve gotta stay strong
You and I run
For the prize that lies ahead
We’ve come too far to lose our way, our way
Get up, there’s further to go
Get up, there’s more to be done
Get up, this witness is sure
Get up, this race can be won
This race can be won
We’ve gotta stay strong
You are not lost
Come on and fix your eyes ahead
Our Father’s dawn will light our day, our day
Come on and stay strong
His grip is sure
And His patience still endures
There’ll be no letting go today, no way
Come on, and stay strong
You and I run
For the prize that lies ahead
We’ve come too far to lose our way, our way
I hope that these lyrics will help and comfort you as they did me. Our God will always grant us grace and strength to overcome all of our trials and moments of temptation. And then we can say, “I will not yield, not this moment, not this time. To God be the glory, great things He has done!”