Living One Day at a Time: The Daily Practice of Following Jesus

Following Jesus isn't a one-time decision made at a youth retreat or church conference. It's a daily rhythm of surrender, growth, and walking with God moment by moment. Just like recovery programs understand that healing happens "one day at a time," our spiritual journey requires the same daily commitment.

Why Monday Never Comes

How many times have you heard someone say, "I'm going to start that diet on Monday" or "I'll begin exercising next week"? Monday has become the magical day when all our good intentions will finally come to life. But Monday has a funny way of moving to next Monday, then to next month, and eventually to never.

This is exactly what happens with our spiritual lives. We say we'll start reading the Bible regularly "soon" or begin that prayer habit "next week." But God doesn't meet us in our somedays - He meets us in our todays.

What Does Step 10 Teach Us About Daily Faith?

Step 10 of Alcoholics Anonymous states: "We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it." The key word here is "continued." This step recognizes that you don't just get healthy once - you live healthy one day at a time.

Jesus taught this same principle long before recovery programs existed. In Luke 9:23, He said, "If anyone would come after me, you must deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow me." The Greek phrase literally means "day by day."

Following Jesus is Not a One-Time Event

Following Jesus means daily participation in your salvation. While salvation comes from Christ and through Christ - you do nothing to earn it - you don't just sit there. You get to walk in it and participate in working out your salvation day by day, as Paul describes it, "with fear and trembling."

Why We Don't Drift Into Holiness

There are no accidental, spiritually mature people in the world. What we drift into are old habits - denial, blame, resentment, self-centeredness, and laziness. We have to swim upstream from these tendencies, which is why daily spiritual maintenance is essential.

By the time someone reaches Step 10 in recovery, they've already worked through significant spiritual groundwork:

• Admitting powerlessness (Step 1)

• Trusting God to restore sanity (Step 2)

• Surrendering life and will to God (Step 3)

• Taking honest moral inventory (Step 4)

• Confessing wrongs to God and another person (Step 5)

• Becoming ready for character change (Step 6)

• Asking God to remove shortcomings (Step 7)

• Making amends (Step 8-9)

What Does Daily Surrender Look Like?

Paul describes this daily practice in Romans 12:1-2; "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

The challenge with being a "living sacrifice" is that we can roll off the altar. Unlike Old Testament sacrifices that stayed put once placed on the altar, we have the ability to climb down every time we offer ourselves to God. That's why it's a daily practice - every day we climb back up and say, "Lord, here I am again."

What Are We Sacrificing?

The sacrifice might be:

• Giving up your need to be right all the time

• Releasing selfish desires

• Breaking old destructive habits

• Choosing honesty over deception

• Replacing anger with forgiveness

We sacrifice something we love for something we love more - God's will and way.

Why Today is the Only Time That Matters

Hebrews 3:13 gives us a crucial insight: "Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called 'Today,' so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." The word "Today" is capitalized in many translations because it represents a specialized theological term - this current moment is the only moment that exists.

The Present is Where God Meets Us

There is no other reality than right here, right now. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow isn't promised, but God meets us in today. Satan wants to keep us out of the present by making us anxious about the future or dwelling in regrets from the past, because the present is the only time we can be in God's presence.

Jesus reinforced this in the Sermon on the Mount: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34). When teaching about prayer, He said to ask for "daily bread" - not a week's supply.

How to Practice Daily Spiritual Inventory

Saint Ignatius of Loyola called this practice the "daily examen." Here's a simple framework:

1. Pray and ask for God's help - Stop and acknowledge God's presence

2. Inventory your blessings - Name the good things God is doing in your life

3. Pray about significant feelings - Ask whether your emotions drew you closer to or further from God

4. Rejoice and seek forgiveness - Celebrate God's goodness and confess where you fell short

5. Look to tomorrow - Trust that God will be with you as you sleep and when you wake

Getting Back Into the Song

Imagine you're singing in a choir and you miss a note. Do you stop singing entirely? Do you walk off stage in shame? Of course not - you jump back into the music. Why would you cancel a concert for missing one note?

Yet that's exactly how many of us handle spiritual mistakes. We miss one note and decide we might as well ruin the whole concert. Step 10 teaches us something healthier: if you miss a note, you just get back into the song.

God is still conducting your life, meeting you moment by moment, note by note, day by day.

The Hope of Imperfect Progress

Even the apostle Paul admitted he wasn't perfect. In Philippians 3:15, he says, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on." Part of being spiritually mature means recognizing you're not perfect.

The beautiful news of the Gospel is that Jesus didn't just forgive your past - He walks with you today. The Christian life isn't llived all at once; it's lived one day at a time.

Life Application

This week, commit to a daily practice of meeting with God. Don't wait for Monday - start today. Choose one simple way to connect with God each day, whether it's five minutes of prayer reading one Bible verse, or practicing the daily examen outlined above.

The goal isn't perfection but daily surrender, moment by moment. Remember: "Lord, I can't. You can. I think I'll let you."

Questions for Reflection:

• What "Monday" have you been putting off in your spiritual life?

• How can you create space in your daily routine to meet with God?

• What old habits or patterns do you need God's help to change?

• Where do you see God's presence in your life today?