Daily Prayer - Past, Present, Future, Eternity

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

 

I have been reading C.S. Lewis' masterpiece "The Screwtape Letters". 

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in living out Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, as seen from devils' viewpoints. Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts as a mentor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter. In the body of the thirty-one letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in the Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters) 

In one of the letters Screwtape encourages Wormwood to keep the "Patient's" focus off the present and off eternity, and to point him instead to dwelling on either the past or the future.  Why?  God would have us keep our attention primarily on the present and eternity, and in particular how our present will affect our or someone else's eternity.  Living in the past typically means regret, shame, and "if onlys", and fretting about the future brings anxiety, worry, and "what ifs".

 

Are you stuck reliving the past?  Excessively concerned about the future?  Those are burdens that you need to lay down at the foot of the Cross and trust that God has both forgiven all your past sins and has a plan to prosper you.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,
Bruce
 
 
 
Father, we're abundantly grateful for our home dwellings here on earth where we find pleasure, companionship, comfort, rest and food.
 
If we're not intentional, we will give more time and affection to our temporal home than our future eternal home.
 
Perhaps it's because we're living in the here and now and the future seems so distant and unfamiliar.
 
Help us not to fear the future nor foolishly think it will not come, but to embrace it so that we are prepared when that moment comes.
 
May our heart's yearning, our primary focus, and our physical labors also have heavenly goals each day as we seek to live for You daily. 
 
In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.
 
(http://adailyprayer.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/a-prayer-of-thanks-for-our-eternal-home/)