Life is short. We get about 27,000 days (about 74 years) on the planet. And because every day matters, we want to live in the moments – to be intentional to know Christ and to live our lives for Him.
In our bathroom at home, one of the lights burned out over our mirror so I put in a new one, but it didn’t quite match the others. My wife Donna asked, “Is there a chance we could get all the bulbs to match in the bathroom?”
So, I went over to the store, picked out six bulbs that matched and put them all in. I was so proud of myself. I cleaned the glass and called Donna to come into the bathroom. She immediately said, “Oh no! That’s not the light I want to see myself in when I put my makeup on in the morning.”
Light has a measurement to it called kelvin, which shows the temperature of the visible light. If you go to the lower numbers of the kelvin rating, the light is a little more yellow, and as you go higher in the rating, it becomes a brighter white and then ultimately goes into blue.
I obviously picked the wrong kelvin for Donna. So, I went back to the store and got a different kelvin – something that looked a little more flattering.
The light you choose determines what you see.
You can’t see ultraviolet light at all, but when you put it on something that reflects it, you can find the wavelength. Your eyes can pick up certain wavelengths in specific ways. And that reminds me of Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (NIV).
One of the reasons we have so many disagreements in our culture today is because people choose different lights to see through.
- The light of science puts on that lens and can only see things that can be measured. A conflict occurs sometimes because, as believers in Christ, we have the light of Scripture on something that makes no sense to someone who sees life only through the light of science. They don’t see what we see.
1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (NIV).
- The light of emotions. We deal with our own lives when we see a situation through the lens of emotional reaction.
- The light of our own wisdom. Different philosophers and gurus talk about “living your truth.”
People live by their own truth without any absolutes.
We have no intentional life in Christ without the light of Scripture.
If you’re going to live the life God intends for you, it’s got to come from a scriptural basis. Without Scripture as the ultimate light; you really can’t have an intentional life in Christ.
The implication of that statement is huge.
Each day our team here is creating content. We have a ministry of words. It’s who we are. If we don’t keep Scripture at the center of what we do, we’ve missed the point. And it’s so important with what we communicate to be reading, studying, meditating, and sharing Scripture as essential to our growth.
Keep Scripture elevated.
The light you choose isn’t about what you see, but how far you see and why it matters. Back to the verse for a moment. Two things are going on in Psalm 119:105. Yes, God’s Word is guiding you in the direction of what you’re doing.
The word lamp in Hebrew means a dim light, just enough to see the next moment. It’s like the running lights on your car. Perhaps you drove down the road and you didn’t turn the lights on all the way. The low lights are running just enough for you to see just a few feet ahead of you and you’re thinking, Why is everything so dark?
It’s like looking down at my feet with enough light to see where I’m at right now. And the Bible must have truth in it for what my next step is. That’s intentional living – allowing the Word of God to light the way when I need to make a decision about the next step in my life.
The writer goes on to say, God’s Word is also a light to my path. It illuminates your path. It’s going out further, like putting on the high beams on your car.
I remember driving on the back roads in Michigan during deer season. You had to be careful at dusk because deer could jump out into the road. You put the high beams on to see half a mile or more down the road so you can see those beady eyes looking at you.
The Word is here, not only for today, but also for tomorrow. And with that in mind, let’s look at both the miles and the moments of life. One focuses on distance and the other points to time – like these high beams and low beams – we need both in our life.
Robert Frost authored a poem about a man in his horse and buggy on a cold, dark winter night going through the countryside. He gets into the woods and enjoys the falling snow and the beautiful evening. He stops, and the horse shakes his head as if to ask, Why are we stopping at this moment in time?
In the last stanza of his poem, Robert Frost wrote –
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
In his words, we see tension between the miles and the moments in life.
We want to focus on running those high beams, setting goals, reaching destinations, achieving accomplishments. Even Paul says, “Forgetting what is behind, I press toward the goal (Philippians 3:13-14).
Press and Pull
We all have a press and pull in the moments of our lives. We have times of mindfulness. We’re told to stop and smell the flowers and get off the merry-go-round. Jesus said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself (Matthew 6:34).
Why does it matter? When we think about putting the light of scripture on both the moments of our life and on the miles of our life, it matters because we live both in the miles and the moments of our life going forward. We can’t avoid it.
When moments meet expectations, they smash against reality. Your goals stand face to face with the giant in your life. You say to yourself, I intend to be patient. That’s the miles; that’s tomorrow. Then you wake up and life happens with your three-year-old. Or you intend to get healthy, but then you face the chocolate chip cookie.
The miles are the things you look to in the future – the hopes, the intentions and the expectations of what will come. And reality sidetracks you and disappointment sets in.
Praise the Lord, His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Tomorrow brings new realities. That’s why living intentionally comes down to the moments. You have to ask, “How am I going to respond now – today, in the next moment?
I invite you to take a thirty-day challenge.
- For the next thirty days will you read Scripture? Maybe you already do that every day. That’s fantastic. But for some of us it’s not a daily practice, yet.
- Ask yourself, How does the passage I’m reading impact the moments of my life (what I’m facing right now) and the miles (what I will face tomorrow)?
God’s Word speaks to both. In the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul speaks to believers, emphasizing some are starving spiritually because they’re not applying what they’re being taught about how they are to live this new life in Christ.
- “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (Ephesians 4:1 NLT).
- He redeemed you. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 4:7 ESV).
- “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 4:13 NKJV).
- He made you alive (Ephesians 2:5).
Get a picture of what you have in Christ reading Ephesians. Paul ends Ephesians Chapter 3 with “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:21 ESV). That could be the end of Ephesians. He gave them a high-beam look into their faith – the big picture of why it matters. But he starts Chapter 4 with the word therefore, and then he gets practical.
The last three chapters of Ephesians are all about the moments of our lives and how we are to respond in the moments.
- “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24 ESV).
- Husbands love your wives; wives submit to your husbands (Ephesians 5:25-26).
- Children obey your parents (Ephesians 6:1).
When you get up each morning, here’s how to live. We must always bring it back to Scripture. There is no other light.
BONUS TEACHING FOR EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS!
This month’s bonus teaching is “Thriving Intentionally.”
Both teachings are available exclusively to you as thanks for your faithful monthly support to reach people all over the world through Intentional Living radio programming and other resources. Read more encouraging blogs from Intentional Living here.
