The Difference

A number of years ago when, as an adult I was baptized, a friend of mine gave me a plaque entitled, The Difference, which reads:

I got up early one morning
and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish
that I didn’t have time to pray. 

Problems just tumbled about me,
and heavier came each task.
“Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered.
He answered, “You didn’t ask.” 

I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled on, gray and bleak;
I wondered why God didn’t show me.
He said, “But you didn’t seek.” 

I tried to come into God’s presence;
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
“My child, you didn’t knock.” 

I woke up early this morning,
and paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish
that I had to take time to pray.

Through my own experiences since then I have found this beautiful poem to be so true. Each day through prayer we must “put on the mind of God”. Without it we are floundering in a world that we do not know. If we pray in the morning we feel God’s presence throughout the day. He is there guiding us through the turmoil of this world. We must have his protection and guidance so we can walk through this world but not be part of it.

In Gen. 15:1 God tells Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward”. In Gen. 15:6 the Word says: “And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness”. God was Abram’s shield, his protection in the world. Abram believed in the Lord. Through his faith God established His covenants with Abram.

This was the difference. Abram had put his faith in God. Each day he walked with the Lord. This we must do to survive in the world today. We must be different from those who have only the world’s protection and guidance. We live in a time of great uncertainty. Our old values and traditions are being uprooted and are being replaced with new ones that appear to change almost daily. This is putting a great strain on our societyGod established his covenant through Abraham to his Israel people. Through this promise God has given us His assurance of protection if we walk with Him. It is only through prayer and supplication that we can keep our thoughts and our heart turned to our Lord and Saviour.

We must take seriously the warnings of Paul in 1Cor. 10: 5-10, “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.”

We must put on the “mind of Christ” and remember what Paul says in 1Cor. 10:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”

This is the difference. We must daily put on the spiritual Rock of Jesus Christ and walk humbly with the Lord!