A Good Practice for the New Year
W. Hoyt, D. D. 1 Kings 8:59 And let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night… But the marginal and more literal rendering of the last clause is, "as the thing of a day in its day shall require." I. Living by the day, as the thing of a day in each day shall require, WILL WHOLESOMELY REMIND US OF OUR DEPENDENCE UPON GOD. We are dependent upon God, whether we think of it or not. It is a good thing to think of it. When we think of things in bulk, we are not so apt to recognise the giver as when we think of things piecemeal. Just take the days thoughtlessly, in bulk, and you will not be apt much to recognise God as the Giver of them. But take each day, as it really is, as a special gift from God's gracious hand, and such separating, piecemeal thought of the days will necessarily breed in you a feeling of dependence upon the God who gives the days. And this feeling of dependence as you take each day as a separate gift from God will prompt you to much nobleness. 1. To prayer concerning each day. 2. To attempt at loftier living in each day. 3. To flushing the service that each day brings with the religious colour of the motive — for the sake of God. II. Living by the day, as the thing of a day in each day shall require, WILL DELIVER US FROM FOREBODING. III. Living by the day, as the thing of a day in each day shall require, will best help us to VANQUISH THE DUTIES OF EACH DAY AND SO ALL THE DUTIES OF THE NEW YEAR which will be made up of days. "I'm no hero; I'm just a regular," said an officer of the army. What he meant was that it was not in his profession to be a man spectacular and of spasms; that he must steadily do whatever his country called for, whether the great, resounding thing or the small: This is what we all need to be — not searchers after the heroic, but just regulars, ready for service lofty or lowly, as it may come. And the way to do it is to do each day as the thing of the day in each day shall require. There is nothing so discouraging, perplexing, preventing, as a herd of undone duties rushing pellmell into to-day, which duties ought to have been finished in the days gone. IV. THE BEST WAY TO OVERCOME A BAD HABIT IS TO OVERCOME IT BY THE DAY. V. WE SHALL BEST KEEP OUR LOYALTY TO OUR LORD AND TO HIS CHURCH AS WE KEEP IT BY THE DAY. I cannot be loyal to my Lord and His Church in a lump and all at once in this New Year. I can only be thus loyal as each day brings its tests of loyalty, and I answer to them, day by day, triumphantly. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require: WEB: Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as every day shall require;