Deciding with Tomorrow in Mind - Martin Wiles

Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him. 1 Chronicles 16:11 NLT

This television funeral drew me in.

Senator John McCain had a long and prosperous political career. Along the way, he fought many heated political battles with those he disagreed with or when he proposed something he wholeheartedly believed in.

Before he entered politics, he fought another battle—with the North Vietnamese. While on a bombing mission over Hanoi in 1967 in Operation Rolling Thunder, the enemy shot down his plane. McCain was seriously injured and then captured by the North Vietnamese. For six years, he languished as a prisoner of war. As such, he knew torture. The wounds he suffered in war left him with lifelong disabilities, but not ones that slowed him down.

McCain’s favorite book was Ernest Hemmingway’s, For Whom the Bell Tolls. President Barak Obama, while speaking at McCain’s funeral, mentioned one quote from the book that McCain loved: "Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today."

King David knew a little about choices as well. He decided to construct a special tent for the Ark of the Lord, a symbol of God’s presence with His people. After the ceremony, David gave a song of thanksgiving to the Levites, a part of which instructed them to search for the Lord in their decision making.

Some decisions are simple—others much more difficult. Regardless of their nature, we should decide with tomorrow in mind, as Hemmingway said in his book. We never know if we’ll have a tomorrow, but deciding as if we have many tomorrows makes for better decisions.

Adverse circumstances in the present can cloud our decision-making ability—or make us decide with short-term vision—if we’re not careful. Only God can give us the strength and wisdom to look beyond our current dilemmas—as John McCain did when a prisoner of war—and decide as if tomorrow and the next day will hold different scenarios.

And for believers, every decision we make should be fought with faith. God holds our tomorrows; we don’t know what they hold. Allowing our faith in Him to guide us will lead us to decisions that honor Him and lead us into the bright futures He has reserved for us.

Let God teach you to decide with tomorrow in mind—the tomorrow you will entrust to God.

Prayer: Father, we make our decisions under Your guidance and with the faith that You’ll bring us into bright tomorrows.

Tweetable: On what basis do you make your decisions? 

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