Human pride is the origin of all the selfishness and suffering in the world.  It spawns our daily unhappiness.  This pride is Satan’s poison, implanted in us so that we believe we are better off to be LIKE GOD than to be DEPENDENT UPON GOD. When pride destroys my desire to be dependent on God alone, my everlasting happiness is choked off.

On a minute-by-minute basis I struggle with this in my own thought life. I fret about my past, become frantic in the present, and try to control the future. Here I am playing at being God, forgetting the blessing in practicing dependence on him. My pride drives me to rehash of my past mistakes and worry about future outcomes.  I barely look at the present, so engrossed as I am with the past and the future.  So I miss out on the pleasure of the moment I exist in. The sensations, the sounds, the mini-miracles of what is right in front of me go unseen.

Living in the present moment is now a goal for me.  I asked some friends if they thought their quality of life would be improved if they could live in just The Moment, and they unanimously said, “yes!”  This takes mental discipline, which is a challenge to me.  But I am trying to stop self-condemning thoughts about my mistakes, and cease from scheming about tomorrow.  I want to just focus on my LORD and the moment he has blessed me with NOW.

How have you struggled with living in the moment? What do you do to keep you in the present?

Amen?!