January 14

VICTORY IN OUR "NOW"
by Ray Prinzing

"I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
                                                                                                      (2 Corinthians 6:2).

To "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," (2 Peter 3:18), means there is progression, and the vision steadily grows bright in the midst of, and perhaps because of the many pressures of the day.  While it is true that we wait for the totality of fulfillment, it is not all "in the future" either, for we are finding that HE IS IN OUR NOW. The more there is yieldedness to the holy Spirit, and He inworks the Divine Will, the more there is a daily victorious living.

Yet, there are many who are aptly described in a quote gleaned along the way. We habitually stand in our 'now' and look back by faith to see the past filled with God.  We look forward and see Him inhabiting our future, but our 'now' is uninhabited except for ourselves.  Thus, we are guilty of a kind of pro-tem atheism which leaves us alone in the universe, while, for the time, God is not.  We talk of Him much and loudly, but we secretly think of Him as being absent.  We inhabit an interval between the God who was, and the God who will be." unquote.

Praise God! We find Him far more than some Historical Being who delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, or preserved Daniel in a lion's den.  He is more than the Future King of some great millennial reign, for "God is our refuge and strength, A VERY PRESENT HELP in trouble. - the Lord of hosts is with us." (Psalm 461,11). Furthermore, Jesus constantly proclaimed a realm of "I AM," not "I was," nor "I will be," but simply I AM.  It is into this dimension that we desire to live, and more, and have our being.  Finding in Him a victorious NOW, knowing that "this is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)