Living in the Moment

by Alexandra Copeland

In recent weeks, God has impressed upon my heart the significance of the amount of knowledge that He’s given us in His Word. There are some things that He did not tell us, but the truth that He actually HAS revealed is more than we can digest in one lifespan. He’s brought my attention to something that I’ve always known, but never taken the time to really dissect. It’s the reality that in His Word, He informs us of our history, going back to the very beginning of humanity with Adam and Eve; and He also provides prophecy that informs us of our future. Knowing where we’ve come from and where we’re going allows us to perform incredibly vital functions, but there’s something more about this I'd like to share. I believe it will firmly anchor us in the abundance, peace, and wholeness of Christ that is required to live fully in the moment. 

God could have given us a book containing only His wisdom regarding conduct—the rights and wrongs of what to do and what not to do, but He has allowed us access to so much more. Therefore, you and I must deduce that obtaining the knowledge He’s provided, and understanding it, will help us to become what He desires us to be. It is also interesting to note that God tells us about the past and the future, but doesn’t want us focusing too much energy on either, especially when it comes to our own mistakes. Our attention should be on the truth that whether we’re at our worse or best, and whether it is the past, present, or future, the common thread is that God has been good to us through it all.  

We’ve heard it said many times that we should live in the moment, because really, this moment is all we have. The past has already occurred and the future has not. Our privilege as God’s people is to seize the gift of what we are afforded in the ‘right now’, because as long as we have breath, life is still our reality. Life gives us many gifts, but in God’s view, the most important of those gifts is the opportunity to grow in Christ by responding to Heavenly Father in faith with every moment.

God told us in Galatians 5:25 (KJV), “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” We cannot live or walk in the Spirit without faith; because to walk in Christ is to walk in faith. Mark 11:22 (NLT) tells us, “Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God.”” Everything in our lives, every decision, choice, and action will bring us back to this, because faith is central to our relationship with Heavenly Father. We have to trust Him. 

We can also see very clearly that witnessing His faithfulness in the past, and receiving the promises of His faithfulness for our futures, will anchor our commitment to trust Him in the moment. So many people are dealing with severe mental and emotional illnesses in the form of phobias and nervous disorders. It is possible that some of these issues are exacerbated by a constant fear of the unknown. People are afraid that the bottom will fall out of their lives at any moment, and it is because they are not anchored in the faith of Jesus Christ. They don’t realize how much God loves them and wants them to live in the wholeness that Christ offers. 

God’s Word tells us in 2Timothy 1:7(NKJV), “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” The very first piece of information that this verse lays out is the reality that our Heavenly Father is the Giver. There isn’t any blessing that a person possesses that wasn’t gifted by the Creator. 1Corinthians 10:26(NLT) declares, “For “the earth is the LORD's, and everything in it.””  God takes it a step further and informs us what He doesn’t give and what He does give. He hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, so if we have fear, we know right off the bat that it didn’t come from God.

So who does fear come from? Fear comes from the devil. It is a part of satan’s realm of evil and darkness. Fear isn’t a part of the Kingdom of God. From this, you and I can know with certainty that living in the moment is not, and will never be, living in fear. Fear is the antithesis of faith. It does not tell the truth about who we are as God’s children, and it is not an acceptable response to the goodness of God’s gifts.

Again, God is the Giver of every good thing. The everyday patterns of life can cause us to forget this and become stuck in a rut. God had given us access to knowledge about the past and prophecy regarding the future so that we can understand with crystal clarity that He is faithful to His Word; that He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and He’ll never leave us or forsake us. But so often, instead of focusing on His goodness in the moment, we freak out over our mistakes of the past and our shortcomings in the present. Heavenly Father tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 to trust in Him with all our hearts, and don’t depend on our own understanding, because that’s a sure way to become fearful and full of doubt. God wants us to seek His Will in all that we do. It’s that moment by moment choice to lean totally on Him, and be confident that He’s got us! That’s how we live in the moment!■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.