This Day, This Breath: Be Where Your Feet Are

Some days it feels like our bodies are in one place, but our minds are scattered across a thousand others.

The phone pings, the to-do list lengthens, yesterday’s conversation replays, and tomorrow’s worries walk in uninvited. Our feet may be in the kitchen, at the desk, in the car—but our thoughts are far away, tangled in what was or trembling over what might be. In the middle of all that noise, a quiet phrase has been on my heart: Be where your feet are.

Scripture keeps calling us back to the holy ground of now. God meets us where we are—not where we used to be, and not where we’re afraid we might end up. The psalmist says, “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). Jesus adds, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow”—don’t be anxious about it—“for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself” (Matthew 6:34). He is not rebuking careful planning; He is breaking worry’s chokehold.

Faith, at its core, is gloriously present tense. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart… and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:5–6). God usually guides us the way a lamp guides a traveler at night—not with a blazing stadium floodlight, but with enough light for the next step. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). Lamps shine where your feet are, not three miles down the road.

Being here with God also loosens yesterday’s grip.

The apostle Paul, who carried more painful history than most of us ever will, wrote one of the simplest freedom-sentences in Scripture: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark” (Philippians 3:13–14). That is not denial; it is allegiance to grace. When sin is confessed, God does not put it on layaway; He deals with it decisively. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us” (1 John 1:9). “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

Sometimes we keep bending down to pick up what God has already carried away. We call it humility. Heaven calls it unbelief in disguise. The Lord’s invitation is clear: “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing” (Isaiah 43:18–19). To live with Him in the present means letting Him be Lord over the past—not by erasing it, but by redeeming it.

There is manna-wisdom tucked in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus teaches us to say, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). When Israel walked through the wilderness, God sent bread every morning that spoiled when hoarded (Exodus 16). It was a lesson written in crumbs: strength is given for this day—not for ten tomorrows stacked in advance, and not for yesterday reheated. “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed… they are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22–23).

Live in tomorrow with only today’s mercy, and you’ll feel stretched thin. Re-live yesterday over and over, and you’ll feel heavy. Stay with today—and there is grace measured for what is actually on the table, in the room, on your heart, right now.

This kind of present-mindedness is not drifting; it is abiding.

“Abide in me, and I in you… without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:4–5). Abiding is just a holy way of saying, Be here now—with Me. It is the soul remaining in the Vine in this minute’s soil. The fruit of the Spirit does not ripen in imaginary tomorrows; it ripens in real-time moments: love when someone is difficult, joy when the day is ordinary, peace when the news is loud, longsuffering in the long line, gentleness in the sharp conversation, goodness when no one sees, faith when feelings waver, meekness when pride flares, temperance when impulse shouts (Galatians 5:22–23).

We are indeed looking for “that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). But we wait best not by worrying feverishly, but by working faithfully. James says it this way: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8). A heart established in Christ is a heart anchored in now.

Being here now also reshapes our relationships.

Regret reheats old arguments; anxiety scripts new ones in advance. Love, however, shows up in the conversation we actually have. “A soft answer turneth away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1). “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19). Swift to hear is just a sanctified way of saying: put the phone down, turn your face toward the person in front of you, and let your mind catch up with your feet. The people God has placed in our path today are not interruptions to “real life”; they are the place where love is practiced.

But what about tomorrow’s “what if”?

Scripture doesn’t shame us for those questions; it redirects them. “Be careful for nothing”—be anxious for nothing—“but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Then comes the promise: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7). You and I are not built to patrol the future. But we can invite the Guard into today.

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Casting is not a one-time throw; it is an action you repeat as often as the worry returns. If you find yourself picking the burden back up, don’t despair—cast it again. Grace is patient.

God also locates obedience in this narrow window called today.

“Wherefore… the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7–8). Obedience tomorrow is a wish. Obedience today is a life. And the One who asks for today is here: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). When He said to Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage… for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9), He was not asking Joshua to feel brave about twenty years from now. He was asking him to trust the Presence that walked beside his next step.

Now is where God is. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Yesterday can be forgiven. Tomorrow can be entrusted. This moment—this breath, this task, this small act of faith—is where heaven leans close. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

So, be where your feet are. Let your mind sit down where your body already is. Invite Jesus into the dishwater, the commute, the doctor’s office, the lonely afternoon, the crowded room. You may find, to your quiet surprise, that in the very place you thought you were alone and scattered, He was already there, waiting, saying gently:

This is the day. I made it. Walk it with Me.

If this Fireside Chat warmed your spirit and sparked fresh resolve to live what you believe, fan that flame with Scripture—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Pull a little closer to the Light, and carry it into the week ahead.

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