Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the need to forget the past and look toward the future while maximizing the present. I wrote that the past for some of us has been like a burden that weighs us down and something that we drag along every day. I wrote that focusing on the past can prevent you from seeing well. It can make you miserable, ineffective, and afraid. Please understand that there is no future in the past.
Today is a very powerful moment in your history. It is the only one you have available. Just as what you did or didn’t do yesterday has affected your today; likewise, what you will do or won’t do today can either positively or negatively affect your tomorrow. Today is the only day you have to invest in tomorrow.
It is important, therefore, to see today as the only one you have to make all the difference no matter how small it is. You must know how to make it count. It is the only day you have to take small baby steps in a consistent manner toward the goal you want to achieve. It is the only day you have to rise to the occasion. This article will discuss what you can use today for.
- Use today to know God: God wants to be known. He wants us to know Him intimately and you can use today to start investing in that knowledge. He delights in us knowing Him (Jer 9: 23-24).
God’s Message:
“Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom.
Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits.
Don’t let the rich brag of their riches.
If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.
I’m God, and I act in loyal love.
I do what’s right and set things right and fair,
and delight in those who do the same things.
These are my trademarks.”
God’s Decree (the Message).
The Bible also encourages us through the writing of the apostle Peter to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2Pt 3: 18). We should invest our time today to read God’s word, interact with Him in the place of prayer, fellowship with Him so that we can be familiar with His voice and develop our awareness of His presence. The more of God we know the more we can trust Him and believe Him. God is not a Sunday-Sunday person. That is, He does not reveal Himself to us only on Sundays alone. He wants to meet with us every day of the week. He wants us to get to know Him when we even do those mundane things like washing dishes, cleaning the floor, driving, cooking, baking, showering, etc. When we know God, we can be confident of His ways and commands His acts. The reason some of us are doubting God is because we don’t know Him. To love Him better, we must know Him better. To serve Him better and fulfill our destinies and purposes in life, we must know Him better. To effectively make the most of today, we must know Him better and deeper. To develop His perspective, we must know Him better.
The reason some of us are doubting God is because we don’t know Him.
2. Use today to know yourself. Apart from knowing God, the second important thing you want to use today for is to get to know yourself. There is no way you can be true to yourself if you don’t know yourself. Unfortunately, some of us don’t know ourselves at all. That is why we are confused. We don’t know what makes us thick. We don’t know what makes us strong. We don’t know what causes us to be afraid. We don’t know what we want, like, or prefer. We don’t know our needs. We are unaware of our strengths, weaknesses, gifts, abilities, talents, interests, and skills. We are clueless as to what we enjoy. We don’t know what energizes or weakens us. We don’t know what we know or don’t know about ourselves. We don’t know our values. We don’t know what we can stand. We don’t know how far we can go. We don’t know our limitations. We don’t know what we are here for. We don’t know what we have and what to do about it.
That is why it is easy for us to misrepresent ourselves or compromise. You have to do lots of personal reflection daily and ask yourself:
who am I?
Why am I here?
Where am I?
How did I get here?
What am I doing?
Where am I going?
What do I have?
What can I do with it?
One thing that is important to know is that you can’t truly know yourself without knowing God in whose image and likeness you were made. The Bible says we have been conformed to the image of His dear Son and we must continually renew ourselves to the image of our Creator (Col 3: 11).
3. Use today to learn. We live in an ever-changing world where what you know yesterday may not be enough for what you want to do today. This is an information age where new things are being unfolded every second every day at a fast and alarming rate. A time in the history of the world when you must continually learn and update ourselves because we are prone to errors and people can mislead us and there is high tendencies that we can be outdated. This is a time in our world when people put lots of information out without verifying its integrity and truth. People are competing to get lots of information out first and then fact-check later if at all they did. Therefore, you must wake up to the time we live in if you have not already done so. Otherwise, you will be living in error unknowingly.
Learning is done daily. And it is good for our development, growth, effectiveness, and productivity. If we don’t learn, we cannot fulfill our destinies. If we don’t learn today, we will repeat the mistakes of yesterday and we will fall short of tomorrow. What you know yesterday may not be enough for what you want to accomplish today. If all you know yesterday is what you are still holding on to today, you will not perform optimally. Have the humility to accept that you you don’t know everything but you are curious to know and are willing to learn. It is in the process of learning that you will know what you know, validate what you know, unlearn what you used to know but is not true anymore, remove what you think you know that is no longer relevant to where you are going and know what you don’t know. Learning increases mastery.
You are responsible for your personal development. So, you must develop a learning attitude to achieve that. The reality of life is that everyone you meet on a daily basis is meant to teach you something. From some, you will learn what to do while from others, you will learn what not to do. Unfortunately, some of us have stopped learning for different reasons known to us. You can learn anywhere, from anything, and at any time if your attitude is right. God encourages us to learn from the ant. You start learning from the moment you are born until you die and there is no end to it.
If we don’t learn today, we will repeat the mistakes of yesterday and we will fall short of tomorrow.
You can use today to regret yesterday or use it to learn something about yesterday. The mistakes you made and why you made them or the success you had and what helped you succeed. You can decide to build on that, finetune what did not work, and find a different way to make things better today.
Learning takes time and effort. It requires lots of energy and concentration. It requires all your attention but it is a necessity. Learning helps you build confidence. It increases your technical know-how. It sharpens your discernment. It helps simplify your decision-making process. Learning increases your ability to solve problems. Learning can increase your ability to live well, do better, eat better, develop stronger relationships with others, and equip you for the future. Learn helps you break free from status quo. It helps you innovate. Here is a word of advice from Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company: “anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
We can learn through reading, observation, questioning, listening, and doing are some of the ways you can learn. You must be curious, open and flexible. You can’t afford to take things at face value. You have to go beyond the surface and dig deeper into things. That means you must figure out your learning style, customize your approach and be systematic. It is also important to know what you want to learn, who your source should be, and create a program for your learning. Remember, your learning attitude can have something to do with your earning tendencies.
Every day reveals God’s glory. That means every day you are alive is meant for you to do things that will reflect God’s glory on your life.
Please remember that it is not enough to learn, you must adapt and apply what you are learning to yourself and make necessary changes as often as possible. One of the benefits of learning is to help you change for the better. We don’t learn to remain the same, we change. No learning will leave you in the same way it found you. It will stretch your mind and help prevent anything from clouding your judgment.
4. Use today to develop yourself. Today has been given to you to develop your skills, abilities, talents, gifts, and character. It is not enough to be charismatic you must be a person of character as well. This is why God tests us to help us become a people of character.
No price is too high to pay for self-development. No sacrifice is too great for it. It is your personal responsibility to develop yourself if you want to remain relevant. There might be better ways to do what you are currently doing. There might be a better way to communicate your thoughts. Self-development is key to your approval rating. The apostle Paul encouraged Timothy to “study to show himself approved.” He urged him to keep giving attention to reading, studying, preaching, teaching, and leading as that is how he could save himself and his followers. If you want to increase your sphere of influence, you need to keep on developing yourself.
…not everyone will fit into your life per time but you still have to be nice to people. Even though you don’t need them today, you may need them tomorrow or someone within your network may need referral from you to them.
Developing yourself helps you to be better at whatever you are doing. For example, if you develop your skills as a cook, baker, nurse, teacher, lawyer, pastor, government official, or content creator, you’ll get better at doing things and functioning well. Skill and character development takes time. So, you must apply yourself every day and even when you think you are tired, you continue to do something no matter how small it is. In the beginning, it might look like a waste of time, you might not see any positive outcome, but as you keep at it, it will eventually pay off. Things get better with consistent and persistent effort and the willingness to improve and make relevant changes.
5. Use today to build your network. There is every likelihood that your network can determine your net worth. God gives us time so that we can develop high-quality relationships, friendships, partnerships and build collaborations with others. You too can build strong network with other humans not only within your local community but globally. There are good, skillful, and talented people around you that have what you need and need what you have. If you don’t utilize them and build a strong synergy, you will be limited and ultimately stranded.
Life comprises others as well. It was John Maxwell the leadership guru who once said: “one is too small a number to achieve greatness” and I agree. Some of us are too quick to discard people because we don’t think they have something to offer. We judge others by what they don’t have instead of what they have. Sometimes, we discard others because they don’t look like us, think like us, talk like us, eat like us, smell like us or do things like us. Always strive to treat people well no matter your differences with them. Building a strong network will make our lives richer, better, and more effective.
Life comprises others as well.
Please remember that it takes time and effort to build strong, versatile, and valuable relationships with others. It is an investment that you will have to make. You have to put yourself out there. You must be willing to contribute to the growth and greater good of others. You must guard against selfishness. If you want loyalty, you must put it out first. If you want commitment, you must put it out, first. If you want something from the table you must bring something of equal value to the table first. Also, always bring more to the table than is required. Go above and beyond for all the people in your network. Help people to know and meet others through you. Be a connector.
You must learn both to bring your sameness and uniqueness to the table as well. We need more people doing the same thing and people doing different things working today toward a common goal. The reality is that you don’t have everything. In fact, none of us has everything. That is why we must work today by bringing whatever we have to the table. A strong network has a way of multiplying whatever we bring to the table including our efforts. Other people can augment your life just like notes augment other notes in a musical chord. So, stop arguing with them.
Having said that you must be discerning because not everyone will fit into your life per time but you still have to be nice to people. Even though you don’t need them today, you may need them tomorrow or someone within your network may need referral from you to them.
Check your attitude. Be the one that easily attracts help not repel them. Be genuinely interested in people. Take care of people. Look at what will benefit them. Don’t block the way of progress to others. Be a ladder, bridge, and sometimes a fence for people who cannot take care or look after themselves.
6. Use today to be a blessing. Whatever God has given to you is meant to be a blessing to others. The way to serve God is by being a blessing to His people and creations. You are the light of the world and God wants you to shine and not hide your light so that others can see through you (Mt 5: 15). The law of life and lifting is that you don’t cover your light or eat your own fruits. Instead, you bring it out to benefit others. You won’t shine brighter by snuffing out other people’s light, you will just be limiting the impact that you can make. The time you are using to destroy others, you can use it to develop yourself and shine your light. God has given you something that other people need and it is as you bring it out that you can help them and be a blessing to them.
7. Use today to bring glory to God. Today is available to us to showcase God’s glory. He created us for and called us to glory. He is about His glory. He is jealous of His glory. He protects His glory. He will not share His glory with anyone. He wants His glory to spread abroad through His people.
Every day reveals God’s glory. That means every day you are alive is meant for you to do things that will reflect God’s glory on your life. The good news is that His glory is risen upon you so arise and shine. His glory is revealed as we shine our lights and be a blessing to everyone around us. The Bible says the people will see our good works and glorify God in heaven (Mt 5: 16). Doing what God has called you to do is expressing His glory and pointing people to Him. God’s glory is about everything He is.
Everything about you is sacred and this sacredness reveals God’s glory. So, the apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian Christians encouraged them to do everything to the glory of God (1Cor 10: 31). This is the essence of life. This is why today matters.
