Live Today!

E. Stanley Jones was a missionary, a theologian, and a prolific writer. In his devotional book Victorious Living he brings out the importance of living one day at a time:

". . . In your spiritual growth you must learn to live today. One of the most important things Jesus said was, 'Do not be overanxious, about tomorrow. . . . Enough for each day are its own troubles' (Weymouth).

"Many of us spoil today be bringing the troubles of tomorrow into it. Worry is the advance interest we pay on tomorrow's troubles. Many of us go bankrupt paying interest troubles that never come. So worry becomes sin--sin against the goodness and love of God. Doctor Worcester says, 'You could pack all the actual misfortunes of your life into a moderate-sized closet, while your whole house, no matter how big it is, would scarcely hold all the unrealized evils and misfortunes you have feared and looked forward to.'

"While writing on this book a telegram was handed to me. A series of calamities flashed through my mind: 'Eunice [his daughter] is ill, come home at once.' In a flash I saw all the implications of what that would mean--all plans tumbling to pieces. I opened the telegram and it read, 'Jacob fully reconciled'--the good news of the healing of a misunderstanding. Life is like that! Nine tenths of our troubles never come, and we can stand the one tenth.

"Charles Kingsley says, 'Do today's duty, fight today's temptation, and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see and could not understand if you saw them.' Live today! Let Tagore's words become true for you, 'Thou dost press the signet of eternity upon many a fleeting moment of my life.' You do not have to win tomorrow's battles today. Win these that you face today and tomorrow will take care of itself. His power keeps you this present moment; that keeping will extend to the next, and to the next, and at the end of the day you will whisper to yourself, 'Victory.'"