June 17

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Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’. Ecclesiastes 12:1

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🔊 At all stages of our lives, the opportunity to put things off till later is open to us; the danger is that we assume we will still have abundant opportunities in the future.  The older we get, the fewer opportunities we will have, but there is a much more serious point here.  This earthly life is not the trial run – it is the real thing.  There is no such thing as a trial run.  Forming godly habits is something that we must begin today.  We may feel the pressure of the moment, the temptation to join the crowd, to go with the flow.  Resist the flow, swim against the current, form habits that will give you the victory in what seem like far-off days.  Someone may read this and say, “But I am not young!”  The point is that we must not wait for the difficult days to come before we learn to fight.  Fight at the time when there is no pressure, when responsibilities are fewer.  Love God, attend to His Word, learn the habit of prayer.  These habits will carry you and help you to do the right thing when it is ten times harder than it is at this point in your life.  God is so good and gives us so much opportunity to learn the lessons of life and be ready for the ‘evil day’, when sinful people seem to rule and God seems distant.  Stand up and do what is right, don’t wait for the pressure of difficulty.