READ IT ALOUD: Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).

PONDER IT PRAYERFULLY: It is very easy to allow ourselves to be so overcome with evil that every single person and activity in our lives is threatened by our disorientation. Once, when I was really upset about something, a good friend gave me some advice. “Just ask yourself, five years from today, will this matter?”

I glared at him. Five years from today? Seriously? Who cared about five years from that moment? “I don’t care!” I wanted to say. “I’m upset now! Right now, it matters! That’s all that matters to me!”

I joked about this incident with a friend a few days ago. We were discussing a struggle we are going through together and I still did not think the “five years from now” trick made too much of a difference.

For some reason, I thought about it again today. Five years from now? Why did he ask me that question? Who ever thinks about that when they’re upset? And then I asked myself: Where was I five years ago? And suddenly, this statement began to make a lot of sense. I can barely remember the details from five years ago! There definitely were moments five years ago that I did not think I would ever overcome. There were things I was terrified of doing. But here I am today, alive, healthy, victorious, and actually struggling to remember many of the trials I went through in 2004! I have lost touch with many of the people I knew then, a few of whom I was actually certain I could not live without. I am in a different city and a different country and my goals and perspectives are so different from where they were five years ago.

Thinking about it made me begin to realize the importance of weighing the gravity of every situation. Even the closest friendships might be very distant in a few years. As painful as it may seem right now, that man who broke up with you last week might be long forgotten in a few months, and this break-up might actually be a cause for celebration when the right man comes along! If you are getting married this week, then in five years you will be celebrating your fifth anniversary and a mean thing a bridesmaid said to you will probably be long forgotten. If you have a breastfeeding child, in five years, he or she will be five or six years old and so it will not really matter that he or she bit your breast while teething. So why stress?

I almost gave up on something today. A friend asked me, “In a few years, when your trial is over, will you be glad you gave up on this cause? Or will you look back and, having forgotten this trial, ask yourself why you ever gave it up?

The Bible is such a wise book. It is pointless to worry about tomorrow because it just might hold more than twice the joy that you had yesterday and less than half the sorrow that you have today. Love does not bear a record of wrongs, because doing that really does not make any sense! When I was ten, I was really offended that someone stole my fountain pen. Now, slightly over a decade later, I have almost too many pens and doubt I would recognize that person if I met him.

BE A DOER (JAMES 1:22): Where were you five years ago? Do you remember? What is that issue that is taking up all your time today? What is it that you are thinking about more than God? Five years from now, will your stresses and strains really matter? They really might, but it is very likely that they won’t. Why sow a seed toward being unhealthy and bitter over something you are unlikely to remember? Rejoice in today – embrace the moment and give it your best. That way, even if you remember it, it will be with fondness and appreciation. You don’t want to look back and see that years have gone by but all you did was think about yesterday, fuss about today and worry about tomorrow. God is the only Constant, and therefore the wisest Position on which to place your focus.

HIDE IT IN YOUR HEART (PSALM 119:11): This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).

PRAY IT PERSONALLY: Father in heaven, a lot may be going on with me, but it is so comforting to know that You are in control and know all things. I have looked back on the past five years and it’s amazing how I am pretty sure I fretted about many things, but right now they actually don’t matter. Teach me how to attach value to the things that are valuable and to let go of those things that don’t matter. Let me sow and invest towards blessings for me and others, and let Your joy be evident in my life at what may seem like the toughest of times, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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